Sonic the hedgehog: Act One, Fire and Rain
by Rick Blaine's
Summary: Sonic and his friends will be tested as Eggman initiates Act One of his grand scheme. A story that has it all: Drama, Action, adventure, mystery, romance, comedy, and if it will get you here faster: free food.
1. Prologue

**Hello Internet. Rick Blaine here. I am (once again) re writeing this. the last rewrite I wasn't completely satisfied with, but I think I have it this time. enjoy**

Sonic the Hedgehog was enjoying his favorite sport, running. Running over the seemingly endless world of Earth. The feeling was exhilarating. not just the speed, and the wind, but the sight as well. one minute you see green and blue, than white and gray, and rarely, red and brown. Sonic could never put a flag on his favorite part, simply because he loved it all. but if he had to chose, he would say the feeling of freedom. the world on his feet, the wind in his face. the sparkling in the air- The sparkling in the air? Sonic stopped, and ran in reverse to see what the source of the flashing lights were. Sonic smiled at the sight. it was the chaos zone. the gate between all worlds, and land of the chaos emeralds.

If this gate was opened, than it was inviting the blue hedgehog to claim one of the powerful gems. sonic through himself at the distortion, and was gone. in the blink of an eye sonic had traveled from Mobius, to the chaos zone. Where he had landed was a large spherical structure, with smaller spheres, some red, some blue, lined up in patches. the energy of the place forced sonic to keep running. like in most of the places in the chaos zone, sonic could not stop himself, and if he wanted to get the chaos emerald, he had to unlock certain "doors" which right now meant collecting the blue spheres.

There are two ways to exit the chaos zone. running in to a red door, or touching a Chaos Emerald. the exits in this particular challenge were the red spheres. Sonic dodged left and right until finaly he got his hands on the next to last blue sphere.

He looked over his shoulder at his companion, Miles Prower. This Orange fox was Sonic's closest friend. many including sonic know him as Tails, referring to his quite unusual physical trait: two tails, which he can spin at rapid speeds, allowing him to fly. as well as he ability to fly, Tails was gifted with an IQ of 350 rivaling only Sonic's arch nemesis, Dr. Ivo Robotic. Robotic's large stomach and thin upper body has earned him a nick name of his own, Dr. Eggman.

"last one, how ya holdin up?" Sonic asked Tails.

"I'm ready Sonic!" Miles replied enthusiastically.

Tails pulled from his pocket a small hand held scanner. "According To these readings, the last positive fluctuation is 128 degrees north east from the top of this sphere" Tails informed Sonic

sonic made it to the top of the sphere and, after a brief moment of figuring out which way east is, continued in the direction of his objective. "I see it" Sonic said pointing to a glowing blue orb.

Miles began spinning his tails as he and sonic made their way toward the waiting sphere.

as the two touched the blue sphere, the whole structure opened into a black hole.

They fell for what felt like eternity before they finally saw a white light in the distance. Sonic smiled when he saw the small glowing gem. "You know the drill Tails! Grab it at the same time"

Tails nodded. the two gloved hands came down on the emerald, followed by a bright flash of white.

Sonic got a chaos emerald.

The two landed in a valley surrounded by tall grass. Sonic pulled himself up to see Tails doing the same. "You got it Sonic?" Tails asked Sonic held up the translucent gem "You bet buddy!" He smiled.

"And now, you will give it to me"

Sonic looked to see Shadow, with his usual companion Rouge to his left, and a Chaos emerald in his right hand.

"And you'll give it to me now"

**Elsewhere:**

Meanwhile, in a Spagonian research and experimental lab, Dr. Ivo Robotnick was standing in front of a capsule. a capsule discovered in a cave nine years ago. The capsule was silver with a glass sealed door. behind it was what looked like a black and blue blob, which appeared to somehow be living. in the previous half hour, Robotnick had broken in, and held the whole place hostage (Through the use of Robots). This was his goal.

a computer screen sprang to life. [input data} it read in an ancient language. Ivo could read it. From his pocket, he pulled two disks. he put in the first one. with a grin, Robotnick watched the screen change from it's directions, to a white background with a picture of Sonic. it then began Analyzing his physical appearance and talents. he then repeated the process with the second disk. it showed Shadow's statistics.  
He puled a polished gray handled.  
The blob began taking Shape. once it had finished, the now living form stepped from the now open glass door.  
"What is your wish my master?" It said  
"I am Dr. Ivo robotnick, your creator. We must be quick, take this and get us out of here" The black hedgehog looked at the sparkling green emerald. and simply nodded. He would then do what he was told and not question it. that was how he was born .

**Come back here (this link) April 23****rd**** (2011) For the next installment of Sonic the hedgehog, Act One.**


	2. Chapter One

**Hello fine (Or not so fine) inernet. I'm back with Chapter One of Fire and Rain (Sonic The Hedgehog Act One). Please note that there are elements from Sonic X in here, (Just the cosmo sory) but it takes place in the world of the games. So there will be no Chris. Thank You and enjoy!**

**Chapter one**

Sonic the hedgehog, The fastest thing alive, Hero of: Mobius, the world of the Arabian knights, Camelot, and the twilight zone, looked into the eyes of his rival: Shadow the hedgehog.

"If you know what is good for you Sonic, you will hand that second chaos emerald to me" Shadow said, referring to the Red gem in Sonic's hand. Sonic shook his head.

"You're gona have to catch up first!" Sonic said, flipping over and running into the Desert. Shadow ran in pursuit.

after a few moments had gone by, Sonic turned around to run in a backward fashion. Seeing Shadow catching up, he winked at the black hedgehog "You're getting better every day Shad ol' boy!" He shouted smugly.

Shadow gripped his Purple Chaos emerald. "chaos control!" he called, teleporting him in front of his rival. as the blue blur passed him, he stretched out his hands, flipped Sonic over, and ripped the emerald from his grip. As Shadow was pulling away, Sonic rolled into a spin dash and knocked him back, reclaiming the emerald.

**Minutes before:**

Tails watched Sonic and Shadow begin their race. _Where's Rouge? _he wondered.

He began rotating his tails, causing him tc hover.

"Now where would she be?" he asked him self.

While searching he glanced in the direction of Sonic and Shadow's fight.

"Of course" And with that, Tails flew in the direction of the battle

"I just want the Chaos Emerald Sonic, I'm not looking for a fight!"

Sonic shook his head. "You might as well give it up Shadow, because I found it!"

"Chaos sphere!" Shadow yelled. a sphere of light flew from Shadow's Hand and dove for Sonic.

Before impact, sonic jumped out of the way and smirked. "come on shadow, is that the best you got?" Sonic said as he ran deeper into the desert.

Shadow rolled his eyes. it had been a while, but Sonic was still the same arrogant hedgehog Shadow remembered. His started his air shoes, and began skating toward Sonic, catching up in seconds.

Sonic looked at Shadow and smirked.

"Chaos control!" Shadow said, calling on the Chaos emerald to freeze time around Sonic.

But as he called the command sonic clenched his own Chaos emerald. "Chaos shield!" He said, shielding himself from the freeze. "Seen it Shadow!" Sonic said with a wink.

Shadow spindashed into Sonic's legs, halting their race.

Sonic rolled into another spin dash and hit shadow from behind. Shadow fell several feet forward and landed on his face. "Chaos Control!" He called, teleporting a few feet away just moments before Sonic landed.

"This isn't a game Sonic! I've been given a job, and I feel that the seven chaos emeralds will help" Shadow said, trying to convince Sonic to part with his find.

"Sonic, look past your pride and your snarky attitude. The Black arms aren't the only threat to the humans. see reason!"

Sonic shook his head "Your job is my job Shadow. just because you were told to do it, doesn't mean you're any more important then those of us who chose to do it"

Shadow began moving towards him.

Some primitive instinct of Sonic's told him to look left.

Turning his head Sonic saw the under side of a boot.

but just before it hit, Tails flew down and grabbed Rouge, and pulled her away from Sonic.

Sonic smiled again. "Thank you Buddy" He said facing shadow.

"No problem Sonic" Tails said as he forced Rouge to the ground.

"Well cutie" She said "Didn't know you thought this much of me"

She looked down to see a diamond ring falling from Tail's glove. She kicked Tails back and grabbed it. "I'd love to stick around" She said, taking off into the air "But I have to fly"

Tails gritted his teeth and flew after her. On any other day, Tails would let her go and help Sonic, but that ring had a lot of sentimental value.

A few years prior: tails had known a girl from another world. Her name was cosmo Cosmo had come in search of sonic to help her save the galaxy. A faction from cosmos world, the metorex, were stealing the source of life on all planets. These planet seeds would be used to help the metorex gain power. No one could say what it was, her beauty? Her mind? Her personality? Or perhaps a combination of all three, but tails had fallen in love with cosmo. It was crazy, and rushed tails knew, but he was going to ask her to marry him. That was before the unthinkable happened. In a desperate attempt at ending the metorex threat, cosmo used her self to destroy the shield surrounding them. When their shield was down tails had to fire his ship's canon at the metorex. But cosmo had no time to move. She had died, and tails had killed her.

The ring rouge had stolen was his engagement ring he had gotten for her, and he had no intention of losing it to a former (Or so she claimed) jewel thief like rouge.

"listen Tails," rouge said "I have no time to play today. I want the chaos emerald" she flew straight toward him but before impact, she flipped below his legs, and flew away from sonic and shadow's fight.

"not before you give me that ring!" tails shouted.  
"This ring?" she pulled the ring from her pockets and a wide grin spread on her face "a wedding ring! Who's the lucky lady?" the white bat turned around and began flying away again.

_this stops Now_ tails mumbled through girded teeth. He pulled from his Fur a small laser and fired it at the edge of rouge's left wing. "oh!" she cried as she began falling to the ground.  
As she reached to massage her wing, tails fired for a brief moment at her hand, causing it to retract to her side.

Rouge closed her eyes before hitting the ground and counted down -5, 4, 3, 2, 1... _Dead, why am I __not dead?-_  
She opened her eyes to see tails hovering with her in his arms "you really are strong." she flirted.

"save it" tails said as he grabbed his ring and dropped her to the ground.  
"I'll be seeing you rouge" he said and flew off to assist sonic.  
Unable to fly, rouge began walking to the fight.

Meanwhile, sonic's fight had grown furious. Chaos spears and other similar attacks flew through the air while sonic ran and dodged frantically.

_This is gona go on forever if I can't find a way to hit back_

Similar thoughts were going through Shadow's head. He needed to find a way to catch up with Sonic's speed.

"Chaos control!" he called, slipping into the Chaos zone, and falling out in front of Sonic.

"Chaos Spear!" Shadow said. purple spheres of energy formed and flew at Sonic.

Sonic smirked as he outran the Spheres for a second, flipped under four, and jumped over the last three, landing on three limbs. "Good one!" he said before rolling into a spindash and tossing himself at Shadow.

Shadow rolled out of the way, causing Sonicr to speed past him. When Sonic realized he hadn't hit his target, he turned around, rolled in front of shadow and stood up.

"Hey Shadow, you're almost as fast as me"

"Sonic the hedgehog, you've forced my hand!" Shadow yelled "Chaos blast!"

At first nothing happened. Then, a purple shield-like energy formed around Shadow.

_Oh great _Sonic thought as the shield began to expand, destroying every thing in it's path and knocking away the remains. As the energy approached Sonic, he began running backwards, keeping just inches away from the field.

Sonic couldn't keep this going on forever. he pulled out his red chaos emerald but hesitated.

He hadn't really used Chaos control more then once or twice, other then changing into his super form. And when he had it left him drained and exhausted. But he saw no other option. he concentrated hard on the emerald, and the concentrating on his desired destination.

"Chaos control" he Shouted. in an instant he was pulled into the chaos zone and then slipped out a few feet from Shadow and dropped to the ground.

He knew another attack was coming, put he could hardly stand up. let alone, run and dodge.

The field disappeared and Shadow looked at Sonic. "A lot wore difficult then I make it look, isn't it?" Shadow asked "Chaos sphere" Shadow began shooting Spheres of energie at Sonic.

Unable to run, Sonic had to once again rely on his Chaos emerald. "Chaos Spear!" he choked out. from his hand, a small Spear formed and flew out and colided with impact slowed down Shadow's, but destroyed Sonics. Given the reduced speed, Sonic was able to roll out of the way.

he had to try again, but this time, he put every bit of will power he had into it.

"Chaos Spear!" He said. This time, a full sized red sphere flew out of his hand and flew again at Showdow's sphere. this time on impact both of the Spheres combusted. Sonic slowly got to his feet, regaining his energy.

"Call it a draw?" Sonic said

"I need that emerald." Shadow replied

"Your call." Sonic said as he began running around Shadow, meeting his purple Spheres with his own red ones.

Between the cross fire, no one noticed the streak of black as it passed. But what followed evaded no one's attention. As sonic began running toward Shadow, a Black hedgehog with blue spikes appeared between them forcing them to a stop.

He was a tall, easily 6 inches taller then either of them. He wore gloves and shoes that looked as if they had been built quickly and didn't quite fit. (not to mention the shoes didn't match). On his left wrist sat a neon green ring. His eyes were brown and appeared slightly blood shot, and the shape of a spiked circle sat on his chest. He looked artificial and natural at the same time.

Before either could react, he pulled a green emerald from his fur, and shot two chaos spears at their feet, tripping them, followed by a chaos blast, knocking them both unconscious.

The ebony hedgehog looked over at the red chaos emerald rolling from Sonic's hand. Yes, killing this Sonic would prove to be all too easy.

**There it is. check back soon for the next instalment of Sonic the Hedgehog Act One: Fire and Rain**


	3. Chapter Two

**Welcome back dear internet. I have been busy preparing another chapter for you all, so with out further delay: I bring you the next chapter in which our antagonist shall be introduced. **

**Chapter Two**

The ebony hedgehog studied his quarry.  
His mission had been to kill Sonic the hedgehog, but he got to kill Sonic, and this other Black hedgehog. Could this day get better?

On the ground, Shadow's eyes slowly opened to no more then a crack. He had a plan. This hedgehog would have to walk here to get what he figured was his prize: The Chaos Emerald. As he had suspected, this is what his foe did. As his hand brushed the jewel Shadow struck him with a Chaos spear, knocking him back a few meters. He followed up the attack by flipping around and blasting fire from his shoes into his enemy's face.

The black hedgehog quickly got up and began shooting spears at shadow. With a grunt, Shadow spun around and ran toward the on coming projectiles. "Chaos control" Shadow said, creating a shield around him. On impact, the projectiles exploded, tossing bright sparks into the air.

Shadow held up his two emeralds. "Chaos blast!" He yelled. a field of Chaos energy formed, advancing on the Ebony hedgehog. it's lips stretched into a smirk.

"Two victims, two emeralds" he muttered "I am pleased"

As the field approached him, he raised his gloved hand. The field began to shrink and enter his body, filling him with traces of Shadows energy. from his other hand a orange-black crystal appeared.

The Black Hedgehog looked up from his new found treasure. Shadow was gone. the first thing that came to his head was that Shadow had fled. Dr. Robotnick had warned him that those who linger with Sonic the Hedgehog pride themselves in running from conflicts. But this one: no. This one didn't seem the type to run. And he (for now) could use chaos control. he must have-

Shadow slipped out of the Chaos zone behind hind his adversary. _Chaos blade _he thought. a clear diamond-clear blade formed in his hand, sparkling with chaos energy. Shadow lunged at The Black hedgehog.

The hedgehog glanced behind him to see Shadow coming at him with the sword. Just as he had expected, Shadow had teleported. The hedgehog rolled into a spindash and rolled under the blade and around Shadow.

"Pathetic" He spat "Chaos control!"

his green emerald shown, followed by the Orange crystal. after a moment, Shadow's Blade reduced to dust.

"Great trick" Shadow said "Chaos spear!" Usually a spear of Chaos energy would form.

But not this time. this time nothing happened.

"What magic is this?" Shadow asked, stunned.

Again and again, Shadow tried to attack him with chaos control, but every time, it failed.

"My turn" the black hedgehog said said. _Chaos blast! _he thought. another field of Chaos energy formed heading toward Shadow.

Shadow tried desperately to use his two chaos emeralds to shield himself, but couldn't.

He didn't know how, but this stranger had taken away his ability to use the Chaos Emeralds.

If Shadow didn't have Chaos Control what did he have? Air shoes? No amount of speed could compare it's self to the ability of the Chaos Emeralds. Even Sonic had to use Chaos Control when the situation demanded.

Holding the gems in his hand, Shadow felt nothing. As if they rejected his very touch.

He looked up to see the field just inches away. this battle it seemed, he would not survive.

The green jewel reflected in the purple eyes of Knuckles the Echidna.

He was sitting on the second step down from the master emerald alter.

this was his life. Guarding the master emerald had been his job from childhood, as it was his father's, and his father's father's for centuries. It was his family's duty. Inherited to them four Milena beforehand.

Knuckles never complained. He had learned the importance of the Master Emerald and it's part in maintaining the balance of the seven Chaos Emerald.

He one day would teach his own child the lessons of the Master Emerald, and they would continue his work when he was gone. It was the circle of the echidna.

He had never stopped to wonder why. he just knew this was the way it was, so why did it matter?

But as of late he had began to question why his family was charged with guarding the Master Emerald. and did he really want to bind in own child to such a fate?

Granted, he did go on adventures with Sonic the hedgehog. On those occasions, he shrunk the Emerald to pocket-size and left the alter.

He glanced at the master emerald. Did it have the answers? Could it tell him?

Knuckles hesitated, and then rose to approach the glowing green gem.

"Great Master Emerald" He said, kneeling "I have served you faithfully for all my life, and now I come to you with a request. I must know why my kin was chosen to guard you all these milenia?"

he emerald began glowing. Knuckles closed his eyes, concentrating on the Master emerald's telepathic words

_**you know why. your father explained it**_

"With all due respect great emerald, my father told me what I was supposed to do" Knuckles replied

_**You request the truth?**_

"Yes, great Emerald"

_**The truth will no doubt destroy you.**_

"I've faced worse then information as you well know" Knuckles said pridefully

_**Then I will guide you**_ the next thing Knuckles "heard" in his mind wasn't as much a sound, but a sight.

He saw a tall pointed mountain. Knuckles knew he had seen that mountain, he just wasn't sure where. "Where is this place great Emerald?" Knuckles asked

_**The knowing will come. **_with that, the emerald returned o it's usual "vague-glow".

"Alright" Knuckles said "Let's see" He sat and began pondering the vision. guessing by the sky, it was in the North. but there are a lot of mountains on Earth.

Knuckles decided that the Master emerald's vision was permission to take it away from the shrine.

But where did he need to go? That mountain could be any where. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Tail's tails spinning fast enough to lift and propel him through the air.

Knuckles turned around to see Tails flying quickly to the shrine.

"What is it Tails?" Knuckles asked as Tails landed

"It's Sonic and Shadow" Tails replied "Some other Hedgehog was fighting them. Sonic's already down and Shadow is just barely holding out. Rouge is already on her way, and I thought I should get as much help as possible"

Knuckles shrugged "I'm no big fan of Shadow's, but I recognize when I'm needed" He said as he walked over to the master emerald. he put his hand under it, shrinking it to fit in his gloved hand before tucking it in his fur. "Let's go"

Shadow looked at the oncoming Chaos Blast. Just as it was going to collide with Shadow, Sonic jumped up and ran to Shadow, Grabbed him and one of the Chaos emeralds while shouting: "Chaos control!" the two were drawn into the chaos zone.

"Sonic, he can shut off Chaos control!" Shadow said.

"I'll take the chances" Sonic said. the two slipped out of the Chaos zone behind the Black hedgehog.

Sonic rolled into a spindash, tripping the Black hedgehog "Who are you and what do you want? Sonic asked. The Black Hedgehog smiled

"I am Black Ray, the perfected Shadow clone. I was sent to kill you, Sonic the hedgehog"

Sonic frowned "then I don' have to feel bad for this." Sonic grabbed Black Ray by the arms and ran several feet before attempting to through him. Before Black Ray could be tossed, he through his feet on the ground and flipped Sonic.

"I have Shadow's strength!" Black Ray said. "What do you have? Your feet?" Sonic rolled himself into a spindash and began toward Black Ray. with a smirk, Black Ray ran out of the way, and through a Chaos spear at Sonic as he stood up. "And I have that as well"

"Chaos Spear" Black Ray said

"Chaos Spear!" Sonic Called back.

The two Spheres collided in mid air, exploding in Red and Green sparks. Sonic looked into the eyes of Black Ray. he could swear in that instant, his eyes were taken by a stronger shade of red.

Black Ray smiled wider. "Your control of chaos is mediocre" Black Ray said, spreading his arms wide. "I'm wide open, can your chaos control pierce me?"

"No! Sonic, don't!" Shadow yelled, but it was too late.

"Chaos sphere!" Sonic cried. a Red sphere flew from his hand and toward The Black hedgehog.

Black Ray watched the spear make it's way to him, and then grabbed it, and absorbing his energy into himself. "Chaos control" He said. his emerald began to glow as a orange-blue crystal appeared in his hand.

Sonic felt his stomach flip, and then: nothing. he shrugged it off.

"Chaos blast!" Black Ray said.

Sonic waited until the field was on him before calling "Chaos control" teleporting in front of Black Ray

"Where's the fancy jewel from?"

Black Ray looked at his crystal in horror. "Why didn't that work?"

amiss this distraction, Black Ray didn't notice Sonic coming at him in a spindash, knocking him back several yards. Black Ray got up and stared at Sonic. His eyes were now a bright fire red.

"You will die" Black Ray ran to Sonic, grabbed him by the throat and slammed him to the ground several times. "Chaos blast!" he called hitting Sonic and Shadow, knocking them both out. "Chaos spear" He said again, repeatedly hitting Sonic.

Black Ray bent down, picked up the two Chaos emerald, and continued beating Sonic.

"There they are- oh no!"

Knuckles looked down to where Tails was indicating. Sonic was being brutally beaten by Chaos attacks and Shadow was unconscious.

"Through me down there!" Knuckles said. "sure thing" Tails replied.

Tails flipped in mid-air and tossed Knuckles toward Black Ray.

Knuckles spread his Body out, and clenched his fist.

in the middle of beating Sonic with Spears, Black Ray didn't notice Knuckles descending toward him. but it was brought to his attention When he was hit by Knuckles and knocked several feet back.

"Is that enough for you?" Knuckles called to Black Ray "Or do you want a REAL pounding?"

While Knuckles dealt with Black Ray, Tails flew down to Shadow and shook him awake.

"Chaos spear!" Shadow yelled, startled, but nothing happened.

"Miles, it's you. Where's Sonic?" Shadow groaned.

"He's over there. it-" Tails' spirits dropped "It doesn't look too good."

Tails helped Shadow up and rushed to Sonic's side. Shadow walked behind Tails, looking over his shoulder at Sonic. he was breathing, but just barely.

Shadow then turned to Black Ray. he was looking at Knuckles, neither one moving. There was something different about Black Ray. his attitude seemed to have changed. he wore a terrible pained expresion.

"What are you going to do?" Knuckles asked Black Ray. Black Ray stared back for a moment and then spoke.

"I don't know" He held up his three Chaos emeralds. "Chaos control"

And Black Ray was gone.

"You let him escape!" Shadow shouted. Knuckle's expression changed from confused to out raged.

"IT WASN'T MY FAULT! HE USED CHAOS CONTROL!" he screamed

"Please Knuckles. do contain yourself, we aren't animals"

Sonic slowly woke up.

"Sonic! Are you alright?" Tails asked. "I'm fine buddy" Sonic said with a thumbs up.

He attempted to stand, but could not.

"Don't try to get back up" Tails said, feeling Sonic's ribs.

"You've got seven broken ribs, what looks like a concussion, and possibly several internal bleeds. we have to get you to a hospital" Tails said. Sonic's eyes widened.

"No, no hospital. I won't go to any hospital." Sonic said, startled. "You went to Medical School Tails! you can, I don't know, something" Tails smiled. I have some... things to check out"

"what kind of things?" Sonic asked, interested. Tails shrugged "I'll tell you if it works out. but as far as health, I do have an idea" Sonic began shaking his head.

"No, no, no no! I'm not going, you can't make me!"

Tails smiled.

Knuckles and Tails carried Sonic slowly to the small ranch house across the yard.

Sonic was dreading every step. Shadow had run off to "Contemplate my next move" He had said.

meanwhile, Tails and Knuckles were stuck with dragging Sonic, kicking and screaming, to this location.

Amy Rose, a pink hedgehog who was in love with Sonic and quite enhusiastic about it (To the point of stalking Sonic), came running out of the Ranch house.

"Sonic! What did you let happen to My Sonic?" Amy asked, terrified

"He lost a fight" Tails explained

"I won it" Knuckles added with a grin.

"Sonic? Lose a fight?" Amy asked surprised

"We need you to take care of him why he heals. just a couple weeks, please"

"For My Sonic? of course!" Amy said.

Sonic groaned.

"And Amy, listen. No making any moves. Sonic is sick and weak, and really doesn't need any more to worry about" Tails said

"So, Sonic might say yes if I-"

"No" Tails interrupted "Make a move, and I will tell him"

"You couldn't do that!" Amy said angrily

"Watch me" Tails replied.

"Tell me what?" Sonic asked "What do you have to tell?"

"Nothing. unless she does any thing."

"Fine" Amy conceded

Tails and Knuckles brought Sonic in and laid him on a couch.

Tails left on an important errand, and Knuckles left to find the mountain from the Master Emerald's vision.

And Black Ray, he would return to Egg Man's base and undergo torture for his failure to kill Sonic the hedgehog.

**There you have it. please review and let me know if the action styled writing is to be used in the future, and how I can improve it. "flame" if you like, I except constructive ****criticism****.**


	4. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

Sonic was running. Running over an ocean of green semi cut grass.

it was truly an amazing sight. watching everything and, at the same time, nothing pass at (for most) impossible speeds.

He loved it. There was only one thing he enjoyed as much and that was-

Sonic grinned. Four flying Eggman Robots were moving in on the hedgehog.

"Finally made it to the party!" Sonic called to the Robots. They responded with a hail of lasers. Sonic dashed to the left and right, dodging the lethal weapons. This next part was his favorite. He jumped up, smashed through the lead robot, and hit the last two with an arial-spindash.

He looked behind him to see the metal scraps fall to the ground and the now free birds fly away.

Sonic looked ahead to see a bridge over a raging river. Sonic stopped him self just before running on the bridge, and saw seven red piranha like robots jump from one end of the bridge to the other.

Sonic crouched down and waited... waited... waited... waited... waiting still... waited... until... it's coming... waiting... and then, as if late on que, all the piranhas emerged from the Water.

Sonic rolled into a ball, and shot across the bridge, destroying the robots, and collected a line of rings.

Sonic heard the metal splash in the water, and the freed lizards scurrying across the bridge.

as Sonic was exiting the bridge, a wall of fire shot up, blocking his path. Sonic shrugged

"There's more then one way to the other side" He said before jumping in the river. As he had expected, there was a trench leading under the gate. Sonic dropped to the ground and began a slow run. after a few feet, a bulldozer-robot jumped from under the dirt, hitting Sonic who lost his rings.

Sonic grunted.

As the robot turned away, Sonic smashed it and continued his run.

Then a feeling came over Sonic. his lungs began to feel as if they were being crushed.

He needed air. He desperately kicked and squirmed through the water, frantically searching for a source of air.

Then he saw it. An air bubble in the distance. As he approached it, it hit an overhanging rock, and dissolved. Sonic frowned he didn't know how much longer he had.

3...

The pressure continued to his stomach. his whole body starved for oxygen.

2...

did it usually take this long to release air. he had only a couple more seconds.

1...

there one was! Sonic rolled forward and breathed in the bubble.

He then moved on to the end of trench. _No! _Sonic thought. The trench ended in a tunnel leading the wrong way. Sonic decided to bite the bullet and take the current up the path.

It ended in a small decorative pond in the middle of a large casino. Sonic smirked. He could use a few rings. Sonic jumped up out of the Water and ran through the casino until he came to a large bowel like dip with a slot display in the center. He rolled down one end, shot up the other, and landed in the slot machine

_**Spin, Spin, Spin**_

**EggMan**

_**Spin, Spin,**_

**EggMan**

_**Spin, **_

**EggMan!**

Several spiked balls shot at Sonic from a cannon. Before they could hit him, Sonic jumped out of the way. Sonic landed and looked up at the slot machine. C_an't be unlucky twice, _Sonic thought.

He jumped back up and hit the switch.

_**Spin, Spin, Spin**_

**Jack Pot**

_**Spin, Spin, **_

_**Jack Pot**_

_**Spin, **_

_**Jack Pot!**_

Two hundred rings shot from the cannon and into Sonic.

Sonic jumped up and landed on the ledge. And standing there, was the black hedgehog with blue spikes. smileing at Sonic.

He tried to jump at him, but couldn't move.

Black Ray Changed from Black to a blurry red. The now red hedgehog raised his hand, where a black spear shot out, and hit sonic square in the chest.

"NO!"

the great blue hedgehog dropped to the ground, dead.

Sonic awoke and shot up on the couch. He tried to get up, but the pain in his chest kept him down.

he decided to just lie down, as he had these past two weeks. How he longed to run as he had in every dream since arriving here. And they all ended the same way: Black Ray kills him.

Sonic wasn't much of a thinker, he preferred to run and deal with issues when they showed themselves. but he had been wondering this whole time how he had survived the attack that would kill any one else, or how Black Ray was able to "Shut off" Shadow's Chaos control, but not Sonic's.

Even without that, Black Ray matched Sonic's speed, and had much stronger Chaos control then perhaps even Shadow (Shadow couldn't shut off Chaos control) Sonic should be dead, Even Tails had said this. Tail who had left on some unknown errand and left Sonic crippled and with Amy.

even Knuckles disappeared, leaving no word on what Eggman was doing with his "perfected Shadow clone".

Sonic looked up as he heard pounding down the hall.

"Sonic? Are you alright?" Amy asked coming around the corner.

"Yeah Amy" Sonic said "I'm fine"

"I heard kicking and mumbling, I wasn't sure if it was another dream."

"Dream? What dream?" Sonic asked

"Oh Sonic, you and I both know you've been having nightmares!" Amy shouted angrily.

"There haven't been any nightmares, but the air blower thing keeps making strange noises"

Amy crossed her arms "It's an air conditioning, and fine. suit yourself" She walked toward him. "Let me feel your ribs" She said walking over and feeling his chest.

Sonic felt uncomfortable with this kind of attention. He preferred to save the vulnerable person, not be one.

The upside of every thing was that Amy hadn't through herself at Sonic. She was afraid Tails would tell Sonic of something she would prefer no one know.

"They feel alright" She said "Maybe you'll be on your feet in the next couple of days"

Sonic's mood brightened

"Couple of days?" He asked. Amy looked as if she thoroughly regretted what she had said.

"Or weeks... Or Months!" She said, tripping over her words.

Sonic slowly got up to his feet and smiled. "I'll go with days" he said slowly walking across the room to test his feet. it felt wonderful to stand, to move. he never wanted to sit again.

"You should sit" She said standing up. Sonic frowned

"I like standing, thanks" he Said. The two stood in silence for a minute, Sonic shifting his wait on each legs while Amy twitled her thumbs.

"You want some breakfast?" She asked. Sonic considered it for a moment

"Yeah" he said nodding, anything to get his mind off his need to run.

it was like a drug he had grown addicted to. if he was forced to go on much longer he saw no point in life.

Sonic slowly limped into the kitchen after Amy. Just to use his feet and get out of the room was incredible. He watched as Amy pulled a fresh pork sausage roll from her fridge and began cutting it.

Sonic often grew tired of Amy's incessant chasing and usually avoided her altogether.

Butit was certainly sweet of her to take care of Sonic these past weeks.

"I'm gona' go run" He said to her

"Run?" She asked, raising any eye brow.

"Or walk" he conceded. "Stay inside, I promised Tails I wouldn't let you out."

"Fine" He said. Sonic began limping around the house, mostly in circles, but all it did was make him want to run even more.

After simply walking for forty minus, Amy called him to the Kitchen (He had mostly avoided it during his walk. He limped in there to see Amy had set the table with a spread of breakfast dishes. Sonic was never that hungry aside from the occasional chili dog, but even he needed food. Amy served two plates and handed one to sonic who chose to eat on his feet.  
"aren't you going to sit?" Amy asked. Sonic cocked his head.

"I've sat enough these past week all I need to".  
"Fine" Amy said, frustrated.

the two sat in silence. Sonic would toy with his eggs and only eat a bite every few minutes.  
It had been this way since Sonic had gotten there. Amy had mostly gone with it. At least he wasn't running away. Sonic was fine with it in the beginning, but Amy being quiet seemed wrong. Like she should be chasing him. It was a fine system. Amy goes after Sonic, Sonic runs and complains about it.

Growing tired of the silence (after all, he always had the sound of the wind in his ears) he decided to initiate conversation. "so..." he said, realizing he should have thought of a topic before speaking.  
"so?" Amy repeated, looking up with her emerald green eyes. Sonic tapped on the table. "this house. I thought you had a place in the city?" Amy looked down at her food  
"it's my inheritance. It's been sitting here for a few years. A friend finally convinced me that some work like this would, you know" she shifted in her chair "so here it is."

Sonic nodded. He never stood around for conversation, so he didn't know how to reply. The deepest conversation he had ever had was with Tails about the Chaos emeralds, and when Sonic got board he ran off.

Sonic pushed away his plate. "That's enough for me." He said walking out of the room.

Amy shook her head and crossed her arms. She had always had the illusion of being able to "tame" Sonic and get him to settle down. these past couple of weeks had proven to show her that it wouldn't be an easy task.

Tails walked down the hall of the abandoned Space Colony Ark. He had spent the last week trying to figure out more about Black Ray. He had spent weeks trying to find a Chaos Emerald. It had been strange taking this little adventure without Sonic, but Sonic was in no condition to help. After he found an emerald he traveled to the location of Sonic's battle with Black Ray and used a detector to find where Black Ray had teleported. finally, he detected an opening in the Chaos Zone, and tracked it to the Ark.

That hadn't been an easy task seeing as he couldn't use Chaos Control. First he had tracked Shadow to Westopolis who had lost his Chaos Control and was hunting Black Ray himself. the two (Along with Omega, a robot Shadow had grown fond of, and Rouge) began creating a device to open a rift in the Chaos Zone. when that was done, they traveled Black Ray's route until arriving at the Ark.

Tails left to the main control room while Shadow, Omega and Rouge stayed to watch for Eggman or Black Ray. taking a final left, Tails walked into the control room where, as Tails suspected, everything was up and running. He walked to the computer and begann hacking into the files. After a few minutes, he got into the computer on Eggman's base. "Perfect" He said to him self.

As he had had guessed, Eggman was using the ark, and he was accessing his own main computer.

A few quick codes, and he was in Egg Man's database.

Tails pulled a small device from his glove and plugged it in the computer.

[Software detected] came green words on the screen. fallowed by a [Input Key Words_]

Tails thought for a moment before typing in "Black Ray" a window came up with reading: [Security code required] Tails hit the switch on the decoder he had used to break through Egg Man's fire wall which quickly filled the password. a series of files came up. The first was a plan to hold up a research lab, the next was a journal log. Tails clicked it and began reading

_"My plans are in place. tomorrow evening will be the beginning of the end. How poetic, hohoho. it all began when my scans from the space colony ark picked up traces of Black Arm Energy-"_

"Well, well, you sneaky Fox." Came a voice behind him. Tails turned around and saw Eggman sitting in his floating Egg-mobile with a laser gun pointed at his chest.

"I could pull this trigger now and have one of you pesky rats out of my life. It's what I've aspired to all these years" Eggman began putting pressure on the trigger.

"What is this about the Black Arm energy?" Tails asked

"Never you mind my business" Eggman said, firing the laser

Shadow ran into the room and pushed the laser gun out of the way. As a result, the laser hit the computer screen, shattering the glass and damaging the inner components, shutting it down. Omega followed in with Rouge, and shot down the Egg-Mobile.

"Permission to eradicate the doctor?" Omega asked

Shadow shook his head "He's not worth it. I would tell him that this is a warning, but the Doctor's 'genius' mind couldn't comprehend can live, but only because he will never be a true threat to the humans" Shadow looked at Tails. "What did you learn Miles?"

"Not much, and nothing more given the state of this computer." He said picking up a shard of glass.

"I could-"

"No time" Shadow said preparing an escape pod. "A pack of robots are on their way, and without Chaos control it could be a dangerously violant fight"

Tails nodded and followed Rouge into the pod.

"Me and Omega will follow" Shadow said, ejecting the pod to the planet.

Rouge and Tails stood in silence for a minute.

"y' know Tails, You never told me, Who was the ring for?"

A minuscule tear made it's way under his eye "Did I need to?"

Rouge Nodded slowly. "yeah" after a moment she followed up with "What did you learn?"

"Not enough for a final conclusion, But I have a theory" Tails began "Egg Man detected some sort of Black Arm energy source in a research facility which he used to perfect a Shadow clone, and sent it to kill Sonic. Now remember, this is a rough theory, and I plan to accumulate more information"

"One quick question, Why wasn't this "Black Ray" here?" Rouge asked

"That's the problem" Tails said, scratching his head "Egg Man obviously knew we were here. he was prepared to kill me, Why not have his clone do it?"

Mean while, this "Clone" had undergone torture for the past two wees. and finally,

his eyes changed from pearl to Red.

"Chaos control!" he shouted, He was instantly teleported to a different room.

This time he would not fail, and Sonic the Hedgehog would be killed


	5. Chapter Four

**Chapter Four**

Sonic the Hedgehog Rolled to dodge a Chaos spear. His assailant was Black Ray: a perfected Shadow clone.

"Sonic the Hedgehog," Sonic heard his voice, but his mouth never moved.

"Now, by order of the honorable Doctor Ivo Robotnic, you will be judged."

Sonic was now in a large court room, surrounded by robots and machines built by Robotnic. Their creator was sitting behind a rectangular desk, wearing a wig and holding a mallet.

"Tear down the hedgehog!" he called, his mustache twitching.

Black Ray stepped forward and held out two Chaos Emeralds. "Chaos Control," the Ebony hedgehog said.

Sonic could not longer move. It was as if his body had shut down; only his sight remained. He saw the robots cheering and jumping, but couldn't hear them.

Black Ray walked unnaturally slow toward Sonic, but he no longer was black with blue stripes. He was now a blood red Hedgehog with maroon stripes running the course of his body. His shoes and gloves had changed from their comical look, to gun metal coverings. He held out a hand and shot a stream of liquid-like black energy. it circled the court room before finally stopping at Sonic and striking him in the chest.

The Blue hedgehog closed his eyes and fell to the floor. The Red Hedgehog spoke out in a monstrous yet soothing voice. "The body must be burned."

Sonic shot up to a sitting position and looked around.

_Just a dream. _He told himself, feeling his body to make sure this assumption was correct.

These dreams had been haunting him during his past two weeks in "captivity" after sustaining serious injuries from his encounter With Eggman's "perfected Shadow clone".

They had always started the same way. He would be running. Ah running, the activity he loved, the activity whose absence had tortured him during his healing.

Sonic kicked his legs for a second before grinning. He Shot up from Amy's couch and looked at he clock.

5:20 AM. Amy would be up any minute and then his shot would be blown. She had been kind enough to take care of him and keep his healing steady, but now he was ready. It was time to remove her burden. After all, helping people was what he did best. He ran to the door, ignoring the small pain in his chest.

Before he could hit the door, he kicked it open and began running through the low moon lit fields, gradually increasing speed. He couldn't reach his top speed, but the comfortable speed was enough.

finally, he could clear his head of everything. He had spent far too much time thinking and not enough running the past few weeks. As hard as he tried though, there was a detail Sonic would have a hard time filtering out.

At the end of his dream, right before his "death", the black hedgehog would change to a Red hedgehog. At first it was just a blurry shade of Red, but as the nights went by it got clearer, and clearer. Sonic didn't know what to make of this, so he simply forgot it. An easy task now that he was free again. The ground pounding lightly at his feet, the cool night air blowing in his face, and the feeling of the blood pumping in his heart.

The problem was that the thought of blood pumping made him think of the terrifying Red Hedgehog, and every turn he took in the dark hours of the early morning, he thought he saw the Red one, ready to strike.

Amy awoke to the sound of the door slamming. She blew it off as the wind at first, and then remembered Sonic. She sat up, slipped on a robe and ran to the living room, hitting the light.

What she saw was exactly what she had expected. An empty couch and a blue blur in the distance.

She was alone again. Amy looked up at the clock Sonic had so idly starred at his first week there.

It was 5:21.

She decided that it would be best to start the day's Work.

As much as she loved her ranch, it wore her out. She had lived in the city since she had left three years prior, just before her parents death. there were no laws for the mobian settlers on Earth, So it was "Leave home whenever you feel like it". after a few months, she learned her parents died in a helicopter crash, and left everything to her.

She was shortly after one of Eggman's victims. After being attacked by Metal Sonic for unknown reasons, Sonic saved her, and she quickly developed feelings for him that turned into obsession.

A friend had told her "I think it's quite obvious what happened, you were traumatized by the death of you parents and Sonic's saving you was engraved in your mind and he became a person to cling to in a life that was falling apart" The friend had told her that creating a life outside of Sonic would be a fine way to get over her "enthusiasm". So she moved into the vacant ranch and got herself busy making money and an actual life.

But city life had spoiled her and she had a hard time adjusting to the new schedule.

She began her day by eating breakfast, cleaning up, feeding her few cows, and slopped her pigs. these chores always astounded her in that earth animals were so much dumber then animals from mobius. finally she finished at around noon and sat down.

Her relaxation was marred by the sound of a propeller. Amy scowled. There was never air traffic in this area. What would a helicopter be doing out here and, why so close?

Amy got up and marched to the window, expecting to find an air craft. What she saw differed entirely. Tails was slowly descending to the porch, smiling at her.

Amy opened the door, inviting him in.

"Thank you" He said, landing and walking in. "How are you?"

Amy smiled back "I'm alright. You?"

"Couldn't be better. found some interesting information on the ark."

"The Ark?" Amy asked "Why the ark?"

"That's an interesting story, and I'm about to get to it. for now, Where's Sonic, is he healing well?"

Amy frowned. "I suppose"

Tails raised an eye brow "Suppose?"

"He ran off this morning. just like Sonic"

"Oh, I should have known he'd do something like that" Tails said, pulling at his fur.

"I have to tell him what I learned" He said, now scratching his head.

Amy shrugged "Come on in the kitchen. I can get you a drink, and you can tell me what you learned. then we can both look for Sonic"

Tails thought for a moment before nodding. "Okay. have any sherry?"

Amy chuckled. "On the money I make? heck no. there may be a bottle of wine I never finished"

The two walked into the kitchen and Tails sat down.

"So, I tracked down a chaos emerald to Abodat and then returned to the desert and used my chaometer and tracking device to pinpoint exactly where Black Ray-"

Any further conversation was cut off by a blast of chaos energy knocking in the kitchen roof.

The Black Hedgehog with blue stripes descended onto the damaged floor.

Tails quickly pulled himself to his feet and starred into the blood shot eyes of Black Ray.

Amy was already up, blood dripping down her face where the wine bottle had broken.

Black Ray looked from Amy to Tails.

"I am Black Ray. Where is Sonic the hedgehog? He must be eliminated"

"We don't know. but we can't let you touch him"

Black Ray grinned.

"Excellent"

He lifted his hands and formed two Chaos spears. Amy pulled out a small brown hilt which folded out into a hammer. Tails began rotating his tails. Black Ray shot a speare at each Tails and Amy. Tails ducked as Amy Used her hammer to propel her out of the spear's path.

"Good" Black Ray said "I like a good fight"

Black Ray swung at Tails who grabbed his fist. as Black Ray was flipping him over, Amy Batted him away with her hammer. Black Ray looked up at her. "Chaos Inferno!" He yelled.

Red and purple flames jumped from his body, igniting the room, and quickly began engulfing the house.

Tails looked around as the room began filling with smoke. His first instinct was to find water, but this thought was dispelled by his realizeing that water had no effect on chaos energy. He had to get out but, Where was Amy?

"Amy, We got to get out of here!" Tails called.

"Chaos control!" Black Ray's voice came from the smoke.

Tails was searching frantically for Amy. So much so, that he could ignore the constant battering of his body. "Amy! Amy, Where are you?"

He called repeatedly, while listening to Black Ray's blind Chaos attacks.

Tails walked through a group of flames, disregarding the intense heat scorching him.

"Amy!" he called again. Tails couldn't hear her, which served to bring about the fear that maybe she to was taken by the raging fire. Tails rounded a corner only to be hit by a bolt of Chaos energy.

before he could hit a flame behind him, his hand was grabbed by a smaller one.

He was taken over by a wave of relief. "Come on, we need to leave."

Tails grabbed Amy by the waist and began flying toward where he knew the hole in the roof was.

after what felt like days, they made it out of the smoke and into the daylight.

Tails quickly brought the two from the air onto the ground. a moment later Black Ray appeared in front of the two.

Tails was sure he was going to attack, but instead his neon green ring began glowing and he ran north. Tails scratched his head. Why would't Black Ray stay to finish the job he had started? Had he somehow tracked Sonic? How could Egg Man possibly enhance a Shadow clone like this? What did the green ring mean? Was this all the resault of some Black arm energy source? where would Eggman of found such power? and why didn't Black Ray kill Sonic in their initial encounter?

Tails' pondering was cut short my Amy's cry.

"My house!"

Tails turned around to see the remains of the modest ranch house burn to the ground.

Tails put his arm around Amy in comfort as she watch the destruction of what was her last tie with her old life.

Knuckles looked over the mountain he had spent many a weeks searching for. it was in a small grove surrounded by other mountains, making it almost impossible to find.

_Almost, not impossible _Knuckles thought as he began his hike toward it. it was obviously a few miles out and if he moved quickly, he could get there before sunset.

He had considered giving up numerous times in two weeks, but that would mean giving up what might be his only opportunity to figure out why his family was given the responsibility to the Master Emerald.

Not that it would change any thing. His devotion to the Master Emerald would remain wavered, and he would still guard it to his last breath, no doubt. But he just had to know why him, Why his children, and why his children's children. Once he knew, his normal life would resume.

Once sunset hit, he was most of the way up the mountain when something caught his eye: It was a cave mouth. he moved closer to realize that it was surrounded by what looked like a door frame made of wood, but over the years had become petrified and now felt like rock.

Knuckles moved in to see the remains of what once was a home. A carving of an echidna showed Knuckles that this was the home of his farthest known relative: The first single guardian of the master emerald.

Now, what was he here to find? As this question moved through his mind he saw a stone tablet.

further examination showed that this use to be a diary entry, but was now only an old rock with a few readable words on it. out of all these words, the one Knuckles found interesting was the word: Hovvska.

Hovvska was an ancient village close to Holoska. Could it be his grandfather lived there?

Only one way to find out.

Knuckles turned around and left. Off to Hovvska to continue his quest for knowledge.


	6. Chapter Five

**Hello Internet. I have not written an introduction in a while, but I feel there are a few things to address. First off, sorry for any spelling/grammar errors. This was mostly written on an ipod, and sometimes thing make it through (Especially earlier chapters). I'm trying to be careful. Also a couple continuity errors: I referred to Chaos spear as Chaos sphere earlier. ignore that. two: There have been words and lines disappearing on the transition between word and Fanfiction. Thinks like "running" in the prologue and "-..." From all over making transitions confusing. I think I worked this all out for latter chapters. Now, without further interruption: **

**Chapter Five**

Sonic the Hedgehog ran through the great canyon, at last free of his injuries. His feet's rythmic tapping on the ground had served well to help him forget his recurring dream. But every so often his mind kept drifting back. It seemed so real. Black Ray Sonic had obviously already seen, but the red hedgehog was the strange part. It was so vivid, so realistic. How could something like that be imagined? Tails had once told Knuckles who was having dreams about the Master Emerald kicking him off Angel Island that dreams are "just the by product of unresolved emotions" What did this dream mean? Sonic shook these thoughts away. There was no sense in thinking. Just run.

As Sonic drifted around a corner, he briefly scraped his heels in the dirt, slowing down to a steady 62.4 MIles Per Hour. (But who's counting?) and looked around. He was running through a canyon. It was beautiful. Sonic looked up at the bright blue sky, watching the fluffy-white clouds move to the wind's beat. For a moment, a flock of birds obscured Sonic's vision, flapping their wings in sync.

Sonic shifted his gaze to the west to see a platformed rock. A rock similar to one in a dream. In this dream, he had been locked in a furious battle on Eggman's Death Egg. after destroying Eggman's machines and freeing the captured animals, Sonic transformed into Super Sonic and destroyed Egg Man's space craft and fell to the Earth. Somehow he survived the impact and found himself on the rock platform. There he saw Black Ray ready to strike. He paralyzed Sonic and it happened. He morphed into the red hedgehog and knocked him off the cliff. After moments of falling, Sonic impacted the ground, dying instantly.

Sonic cringed. In a few weeks he had died countless times, all by the same hands. This red hedgehog, this hedgehog he knew didn't exist, had become his worst enemy. Somehow Black Ray no longer seemed as dangerous. Even though Sonic knew he was. After all, Sonic had almost been killed in their last battle. The only reason he was running now was because he had friends willing to put their own lives on the line to save him.

Whenever Sonic thought of friends the first name to come to his mind was Tails.

Tails had been there since on of his first adventures. The kid Fox had seemed a bit dorky at first.

He had went to medical school briefly (A month) before finding his true passion in engineering.

Tails had about a dozen degrees and licenses including physics, pilots, and engineering as well as a few others.

The two quickly became friends. Sonic had found a "sidekick" (Who had ended up being the hero his share of times) And Tails had found a way to put his work to good use.

Tails had been with Sonic during his best and worst times, as well as Sonic for Tails.

including a year ago when a good friend of Tails had past away in a battle.

As every one had suspected, Tails had become very fond of Cosmo, A plant species from another planet. The first few months Tails had a hard time even leaving his workshop. he occupied his time tinkering with his plains and other machines.

eventually Sonic and some of the others had helped Tails to move on. He had cheered up to the point that often times Sonic would believe maybe he had imagined those few months. Tails was smiling and joining the constant fight against Eggman. But every so often Tails would be caught simply staring into space, fondling with items.

Sonic's memories were cut short by a large mechanical walker landing in his path. Sonic pushed all of his weight into his heels to suddenly stop. It was a large gray wheel wheel with two arms mounted to the side which served to pull the machine forward. at the left side of the left arm was a small cockpit, and in the cockpit was Dr. Ivo Robotnik.

"hey, Eggman" Sonic with a mocking tone. "Been wondering when you'd show your face. Been busy?"

Eggman smirked "I assume you refer to Black Ray?"

Sonic nodded  
"do you really think another hedgehog could stop me? Shadow didn't, Silver didn't, Mephilis couldn't even kill me right! Don't you see? I'm the coolest. No hedgehog can compare."

"you are a smug hedgehog!" Robotnik yelled "Black Ray is more then what you think!" Eggman pulled a switch. Hatches running the length of the wheel opened revealing multiple machine guns.

Sonic forced a yawn. "So, where is this hedgehog now?"

Eggman tapped his finger, contemplating weather or not to give Sonic an answer.

"Black Ray was just south of here. I asked him a favor, telling him I would keep you here, but maybe I can beat beat you without Black Ray?"

Sonic raised his eye brow. "Have you ever been able to Eggy?"

"The winds of change may just be blowing in my favor. Egg Smasher, go!"

The arms began moving the machine forward, charging at Sonic. Sonic simply jumped out of the way and began running. The "Egg Smasher" began chasing, quickly catching up.

Robotnik pulled a lever, and the guns began shooting at Sonic, who dodged the projectile lasers with ease  
"We could be doing this all day doc!" Sonic called "At least until I smash the smasher!"

Eggman smiled again "Don't be so sure my spiky friend." Egg man pulled open a door to reveal a sliding switch. he waited for a green light situated above the case to come on and pushed the slider to the top. "all systems! Full power!" Eggman called. The vehicle's energy gathered into small relays covering the hull. Egg Man's device began glowing a bright purple.

Sonic looked up and down at the machine. "What's this?" Sonic asked in a mocking tone.

"Your end" Eggman said. he pushed on the control stick, sending the machine hurdling toward Sonic. The machine hit it's mark in seconds.

Sonic was thrown roughly against a near by rock. "Fine, let's play rough!"

Sonic got up and continued running, Robotnik's weapon in close pursuit.

This time before Sonic could be hit again, he rolled out of the way and watched the machine crashed into the canyon wall.

Eggman looked down onto the "dashboard" to see the energyometer move down to zero.

"Oh, He's not going to get away with this!" Eggman howled.

He pulled back on the controls, moving the machine in reverse, and then pushed the whole vehicle in full speed, quickly catching up with Sonic.

Sonic looked up at the machine. gathering speed, he flipped around into a spindash and through himself at the machine. Eggman simply tugged on the controls and the machine slid out of the way and began shooting. Sonic took only a second to move out of the way and continue dodging the lasers. "It's no use, give up." Eggman said

Sonic just smiled back at him. "You don't know me at all, do you?"

"your loss" Eggman said as his energyometer reached the top again.

He hit the button again and send the machine diving for Sonic

_Haven't we been through this? _Sonic thought. Pushing his heels in the ground, Sonic lunged out of Eggman's way again and the vehicle crashed into another canyon wall.

As the damaged machine sat there, sonic jumped, and sent himself crashing through the metal, disabling the machine.

"What now Eggman?"

Shadow ran towards the canyon as fast as his shoes could take him. A short distance behind him, were Omega and Rouge. _Can't they go faster? _Shadow thought.

He had spotted Black Ray a few miles back retrieving a disc, no doubt for Dr. Robotnik.

When he approached, he ran toward the desert. something in Shadow told him that he was heading for Sonic, and he knew Sonic could use all the help he could get.

Of course, Shadow could use all the help HE could get.

He didn't know how to manage without his Chaos control. He had always had it, he used it for every thing, and now it was gone. how was it gone? he didn't know. it reminded him of something Maria said 50 years before.

They were on the ark, and played a game she loved. Chess, maybe was what it was called.

But they would play it and he always managed to get close to or actually win with his queen.

But on this particular game, She managed to take his queen. The rest of the game he did miserably because he no longer had the piece he relied on. At the end of the game, when she won, she said

"Don't you see what you did wrong Shadow?"

"I suppose it was a chain reaction set off when I moved the knight to_" He started when she cut him off. "No, you have grown to completely rely on that Queen. When I took it, you didn't know what to do" Shadow just walked out of the room.

Maybe he should have learned from that lesson. Here he was in the same situation.

Later on that day, Maria came to him in a panic.

"Shadow!" She said "Soldiers have come aboard the ark and are arresting people. they're looking for you!"

Shadow looked into her blue eyes and nodded.

"Come on, let's get you out of here" He said. he took her hand and began towards the escape pod launch bay.

As they exited the elevator on the bottom level, there were five soldiers down the hall in front of them.

"I found the target!" The lead one said into a communicator. "Hands up!" He shouted, pointing a pistol at Shadow.

"Come on Maria" Shadow said, pulling her down the left hall towards the escape pod room.

I should have taken you to the computer room. there is an escape pod in there.

"Let's just go Here" She said, preactically in tears.

The two entered the room with the soldiers in persuit. Shadow hit the control to close the door and locked it. "That should hold them briefly" Shadow said guiding Maria to a pod ready to launch. The others needed to be preped.

Shadow then realized a desighn flaw: To get each small one-man pod launched, you had to hit the switch from the outside. There probably was a timer though. He decided he'd deal with that once Maria was safe.

"Maria, you should-" before he could finish, Maria pushed him in the pod and closed the door.

"Maria, what are-" Once again he was interupted by the soldiers breaking down the door and the head man pointing the hand gun at Maria. "Freeze, Don't let them escape!"

Maria looked at Shadow. "Shadow please, do it for me. for all those people who live on that planet. give them a chance to be happy. Let them live their dreams. Shadow, I know you can do it. that's why you were brought into this world. Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog."

"Don't do it, I will shoot!" As she bagan pulling down the lever, the soldier squized the trigger, shooting Maria. As she was dying she finished pulling the lever, sending Shadow to earth .

Shadow squinted at the memory. It was truly a terrible sight. She wasn't more then 13 years old.

Shadow entered the canyon to see Black Ray standing face to face with Sonic, ready to strike

"Chaos Control" he said, throwing Sonic back several feet.

"Hey, Black Ray" Shadow said as he came to a halt.

Black Ray turned around to see the him, Omega and Rouge ready for a fight.

On his other side, Sonic stood up.

Black Ray looked back between all four of them with his Brown eyes.

"Doctor" He said as Eggman flew around in a damaged egg-mobile

Eggman shrugged. "Just destroy all of them!"

"Alone?"

Before anything could be said, Shadow jumped towards Black Ray as well as Sonic. He knocked them back but was then shot at by Omega and Rouge attacked from the sky.

Black Ray fought his best, but even he could not take on the four of them.

Having taken enough, Black Ray fled.

Eggman fallowed behind, screaming curses at Sonic.

Sonic smiled at Shadow. "Thanks man" he said.

Shadow frowned "forget it. You have to be careful Sonic. if we weren't in the area this would have ended worse then your last fight in"

Omega stepped up "What Shadow is implying is that you would have been eradicated."

"Thanks for the tip, but I can take care!" Sonic said before running off. Shadow shook his head.

Omega was right. Sonic could very well be killed next time.

**That was it. I know I did a dangerous think writing Maria's death. I did go with the Sonic Adventure two version though! If I get reviews to let me know I have readers then I can try to get chapters out once a week. I have every thing through Chapter eleven written that I just need to check, so it's definitely possible. **

**until next time!**


	7. Chapter Six

**I am back and it didn't take long. As you can see, I can very much update once a week! hahahahaha! any way, here is Chapter Six. **

**Chapter Six **

"Twenty five thousand volts!"  
The torturer called.  
Another machine turned the silver knob up to "2500", sending more electricity into Black Ray.

The ebony hedgehog screamed in pain. But he would not die.  
His anatomy would not allow such a simple death. Or at least, that's what Black Ray figured. Figured, and wished it wasn't so.  
The agony was unbearable. He wasn't sure why it went on so long.

The last time he was tortured it was until... Well, he wasn't sure, but something changed.  
His mind became simpler. Pleasure seemed easily obtainable through violence. Like he could let go, be lost, and not give really care. But when does he reach this point. How? What is it? Black Ray would think more about it if he wasn't in so much pain.

"The Doctor needs him red-eyed. Twenty six thousand volts!" the torturer said again in it's cold metallic voice. The robot turned the knob again to "26,000".  
Black Ray's scream deepened.  
If it wasn't a machine, the torturer might actually take pleasure in this. The position of power, the ability to push any one to any thing, and of course, the screaming. It loved the screaming. That is, if love was possible.

"twenty eight thousand volts"  
The torturer called again in that voice. That voice Black Ray had come to despise. The dial went up, sending more volts into Black Ray.  
He had taken enough. When would he die? Why wouldn't he die?  
Then every thing went dark.  
The pain was gone and he felt nothing. Not even a body.  
"come here Black Ray, I need you" came a soft female voice. She was close but drifting slowly away.  
Every thing grew quiet until  
"I meant nothing!" it was a much darker, almost threatening voice.

Then it was all back. The pain, the chamber, the torturer. But it was all different. So familiar. Power radiated from his body. He felt hatred, hatred for his torturer, hatred for this room, and hatred for Sonic the Hedgehog. Probably running right now, celebrating his victory. Victory that had cost Black Ray so much. He would find Sonic again, and no matter what army Sonic had behind him, Black Ray would kill him.

Black Ray reached into his Three chaos emeralds, calling their power to him. No, calling his power back. That's what they were. They were his power.  
"Three hundred thousand volts"  
The torturer said.  
Black Ray looked up at him with his blood shot eyes.  
"wait-" the torturer began, but it was too late.  
"Chaos Blast!" Black Ray roared.  
On command, a field of Chaos energy formed around Black Ray and began expanding. In seconds, the field swallowed the chamber, vaporizing the torturer, the servant and the shock-machine.  
Then as quickly as it came, it was gone. Leaving nothing but dust and Scorched walls.

From a monitor in Eggman's location, Robotnik smiled. Things were looking up. Now, onto training.

**Else where**

Tails dove out of the way to avoid yet another attack from the large silver robot. It was a seven foot long drill designed to dig underground and pop back up, injuring or killing it's target.  
Today it's target was Tails, who was in obvious violation of Dr. Robotnik's will by still being alive.

Luckily, Tails' ability to fly by rapidly spinning his twin tails had assisted in evading the machine, but he could only keep it up so much longer. Eventually he would tire. And once that happens his speed would decrees and he would fall victim to the drill. And if that wouldn't take him, he might eventually put and extra .0008 in his geometrical equation and miscalculate just when or where the machine would come up. He would stand in the wrong place, and his life would be over as quick as it started.

Of course, what had really happened in his life? He spent the first 6 or seven years in schools. He had degrees in engineering, physics, chemistry, quantum mechanics, history, and biology. He even attended medical school for a week and a half before deciding it was boring and not enough of a challenge. He also had a pilots and radio license. But where has it gotten him? Alone a lot.  
His greatest relationship was with Sonic the Hedgehog, but they were only together when saving the world.  
He had found a romantic love once, but it was short lived.  
What else could he do?

Sometimes, when he was alone, thoughts would drift into his head.  
Maybe it was time he die.  
He had done everything there was to do, and gotten nothing from  
It. It used to be that he was fine in that role. He enjoyed the quiet, but when he needed the action, there was Eggman, up to no good again.  
But then Cosmo came along and showed Tails a world he had never given a thought to. And then, she got completely selfish and died. And sinse then, all Tails could do was think about her. And what would happen once this adventure was over?  
He would go back to his workshop, tinker with his machines, and think about Cosmo.  
He had found one way to deal with it, and that was listening to other people's problems

Tails made his calculations again and flew out of the way of the drill coming upwards. If he didn't pay more attention, he wouldn't survive this. He had just been on his way to tell Sonic what he had learned and what he planned next, when this robot had attacked, determined to keep Tails from his goal.  
Given the form of the machine, Tails really couldn't attack it, just dodge it's attacks. He had tried spinning around it to slow it down, but he wasn't strong enough. He had a bomb, bit he couldn't place it unless the drill was completely still.  
He didn't know what to do.

Tails rolled out of the way again to avoid impact with the drill. Taking not of angle, speed and past maneuvers, Tails calculated where it would come up and moved away from the area. Once again he was correct and safe.

After coming up again, it drilled back down toward Tails.  
_Lets try this again_ Tails thought. When it came back up Tails flew to it and span rapidly around it.

As a result of the two forces colliding, both were stopped.

_Come on, come on _Tails thought, desperately trying to pull it to the ground and place the bomb.

Just then, he saw a small blue shape hit the drill and slow it down. Tails was able to push it down farther, where another larger shape grabbed it and helped pull it to the ground.

Once it was still, Tails placed the bomb just under a metal place and hit the switch.

Tails and his helper both rolled away just before it exploded.

Tails looked up to see his assistant's face. To his surprise, it was Cream the rabbit, and her chao cheese.

Cream was a young girl who had joined Sonic and Tails a few times on their adventures. Of course, her age often timed lamented what she could do. But none the less, she had proven an asset on numerous occasions.

"Hello there Mr. Tails!" she said.  
"I told you Cream, it's Tails" he replied.  
"alright Tails. Are you okay?  
Tails smiled "I wouldn't have been if you hadn't been here. Thank you"  
"you are welcome. Mother always says that we always help when it's needed" she said with a large grin.  
"how long has it been Cream?" Tails asked.

Thinking for a moment, she responded "the space mission. With-" she sniffed "Cosmo"  
Tails' smile faded as well. The whole thing wasn't much better for Cream. She had grown close to Cosmo as well. Tails put a hand of cream's arm. "yeah, I know. It's hard"  
"mother says it's better to of had and lost a friend then to of never had one. Isn't that right?" she asked

Tails looked into her eyes and thought about it. For some time, that lousy phrase had tortured him. Loosing her was pretty lousy, and he really didn't care before she showed up.

"I don't know Cream" he said

"speaking of adventures" she said. Cream had enough sense to know when to switch the subject.  
"I know You, Mr. Sonic and mrs. Amy are on one."  
Tails nodded in response  
"I want to go to" she said,  
"choo!" cheese "said" in agreement  
Tails looked back between the two.  
"I'm sorry cream, but this time it's far too dangerous" he said thinking about how Black Ray had nearly killed Sonic.

"But Mr. Tails, I know we can help! Mother says-"  
"I don't care what she said Cream. What we have to face puts us at a risk I don't want to share." Tails snapped.  
Offended, Cream's eyes began to water  
"what is it you have to do?"

Tails rolled his eyes.  
"cream, I have to find a chaos emerald and then face something that had the ability to almost kill Sonic had it not been for knuckles, Shadow and I. If it were something easier, I'd say please join us, but I care about you and so do Sonic and Amy. I'm sorry."

Cream simply smiled.  
"okay. Good bye Mr. Tails" she began flapping her large ears, lifting her in the air, and flew away with cheese behind.

Tails scratched his head.  
He would like to bring Cream along, but it could be too dangerous. With Eggman's robot finished, he flew away. He still needed to find Sonic and tell him his next plan.

**Else Where**

Knuckles walked through the once magnificent gateway. His location was Hovvska, a village in a valley south of Holoska.  
Though, village was a bit of an over statement. It was a village a hundred years ago. Supposedly where the first people from Knuckles' planet made contact with humans. Now it was just ruins. But a journal entry written by Knuckles' great-great-great-great grandfather had stated that he planned to travel here.

His first destination was the first of one of the three only standing buildings. (but only just) From the looks of it, he guessed it used to be a living quarters. What was left of the ceiling stood five feet from the ground. It was cluttered with bits of rotting wood and cloth and what Knuckles thought was a human arm skeleton.

Finding nothing, he moved on to the next place. From the out side it looked like a small closet, but when he opened the door, resulting in it falling off the hinges, he found a wooden stair case with almost every step broken. He jumped down to the floor about a meter bellow to find a cold stone chamber no bigger then a water tower tank. Everything else was rotted, but based on the design he figured it was a food storage area.

Deciding there was nothing there, he moved on to the next building. This one was much larger then then other two but lacked a ceiling and most of the walls. Based on what was left, knuckles guessed it was a temple or a cathedral. He searched the entrance first.  
The only intact item he found was half of a stone tablet. He looked at it and recognized it as ancient Galian. It read:  
"re the who it may speak be, drove the it out. Danger-cation to village. Back to flying Island. Bye talking food."  
Or that was the best Knuckles could translate. Ancient Babylonian was a much easier translation.

This was obviously nothing more then an account of the humans being scared and kicking the people from Knuckles' world out.

He threw it aside and moved on to the main sanctuary. It was large and only one window was intact. And it was desolveing. Knuckles moved closer to the window and noticed something he hadn't from the distance. It was a picture of an echidna sitting by a large tree.  
The echidna looked enough like Knuckles that he decided it must be his great-great-great-great grand father.

Knuckles was staring so intently at that window that he was startled when he heard a whisper in his ear.  
"Get out!" it said.  
Knuckles looked around and saw no one.  
Having what he came for Knuckles ran out of the village as fast as he could. His next goal was to find that tree. If it still existed.

**As you probably can tell, this is but the start of the mystery of Black Ray. If you read this story back in 2006 then tell me what you think of the updates. I think it's much, much better. The next chapter soon! Thank you, and please review.**


	8. Chapter Seven

**Hello again internet. I've been working on Chapter 15 as of late and thought "Hey my one or two readers might be ready for another chapter now" So, I proptly made my way to the archives and pulled this up, made some quick changes, and now, it's here!**

**Enjoy**

**Chapter Seven**

Black Ray stood in a large storage hanger on Eggman's base hidden underground. He looked up at the doctor awaiting instruction. He had just finished an exercise in which he practiced sending a spread of Chaos Spears rather then one at a time. The doctor said it would help next time he fights a group of Sonic's accomplices. It had gone well and all the dummies were destroyed with their remains burning.

"very good Black Ray" Robotnik said from his egg-mobile. "this next test is to implement what you've learned in combat. I will send out five robots, each representing one of Sonic's allies, and one representing Sonic. Are you ready?"  
Black Ray nodded. He longed to destroy. It brought him joy. Pure simple joy.

Eggman pressed a button, opening the hanger doors. From within came: a flying robot with two blades to represent Tails, another flying robots with bombs and special Arms and legs for combat to represent Rouge, a robot with a large mallet to represent Amy, a ground robot with two spiked fists, a robot that could teleport around the room and shoot lasers, and a copy of E-123 Omega.

Black looked over his adversaries, waiting for the signal for the fight to begin. The atmosphere in the room dropped. All that mattered to Black Ray was this fight. He needed this fight. He could not loose again next time he fought Sonic the Hedgehog.

After what felt like eternity, Eggman rang the bell.  
At his signal, the robots moved in on Black Ray.

Meanwhile, from the doors came another robot. This one was three feet tall with silver spikes running the length of it's body from it's head to it's "tail". It was a gleaming silver with glowing red eyes. It's hands were black and pointed.  
This Silver Sonic looked on Black Ray, analyzing it's opponent.

Black Ray's first move was what he had just perfected. "Chaos Spear" he said. With concentration, he sent all his spears at once in a large spread hitting "Knuckles", "Rouge" and "Amy". The others all dodged.

E-123 began shooting his twin guns at Black Ray from the left whilst "Chaos Spears" came from "Shadow" on the left. Using his speed, he dodged "Shadow's" attacks and conjured a shield to block E-123.  
Weighing his best options, Black Ray charged for the latter.  
On impact, the shield dented and burned the large robot.

With E-123 stunned, black ray swung it over his shoulder where "Shadow's" lasers destroyed it.  
_one down_ Black ray thought.

"chaos control" Black ray said. The hedgehog was quickly teleported away as "Tails" lunged with his swords

Eggman looked down on the fight with a smile on his face. This training had been a brilliant idea on his part.  
Next time they met Sonic and his friends, no matter the number, they would surely win. Eggman looked down again to see Silver Sonic had kept mostly hidden. No doubt waiting for his opportunity to strike.  
The past two times Black Ray had fought Sonic, it was his friends who stopped him. Black Ray just wasn't ready to take on so many at once. But now he was. He had already taken down E-123, "Tails" and "Amy". Oh, and there goes "Rouge".

Black Ray turned to "Shadow".  
"Chaos-" Black Ray started but was cut off by Silver Sonic hitting him from behind and knocking him into Shadow's laser.  
"Chaos Control" Black Ray said quickly, teleporting from the spot.

He reappeared on his feet behind "Shadow" and looked over the two opponents.

"sneaky master" Black Ray said. Eggman shrugged  
"I warned you."  
"so you did. Chaos Blast!"  
A wave of chaos energy rushed toward the two.

"Shadow" teleported to a safe spot before it him and moved on to Silver Sonic who created a shield.

Silver Sonic rolled toward Black Ray again whilst "Shadow" threw more lasers at him.

_Entertaining_  
He jumped over the silver spiked ball and deflected the lasers using chaos control and landed, turning around to watch the reaction the robots had. "Shadow" dodged his Laser while Silver sonic prepared a dash for Black Ray.

"Shadow" was the next to attack, he lunged forward with energy building in his had. Silver Sonic followed with a shield. Getting ready, Black Ray ducked under "Shadow's" hand and grabbed his shoulder. When Silver Sonic came close, Black Ray threw "Shadow" into the shield, destroying "Shadow" and knocking Silver Sonic back.

As a finishing blow, Black ray launched three spears at Silver Sonic, leaving him unable to defend himself. "chaos blast" Black Ray said. He longed to make this robot nothing but ashes.

"Wait! Stop!" Eggman yelled.  
Black Ray looked up to his master.  
"I may need him intact for future use."  
Black Ray looked down at Silver Sonic who was looking up at him.  
"fine" Black Ray said obediently.  
Eggman shook his head.  
"help him to his feet. I have work to do for the expedition in a few days."  
He said as he flew out of the room.

Black Ray looked down at silver Sonic before helping him to his feet.  
"you obeyed Robotnik. Why?"  
Silver Sonic asked in a toneless voice.  
"because he created me from Shadow the Hedgehog's blood." Black Ray replied.  
"He has played you Black Ray. In the same way I play him."  
Black Ray raised an eye brow  
"explain" he ordered  
"I cannot. However, my master can explain. My true master"  
"you mean your master is not Doctor Robotnik?" Black Ray asked  
"No. My master would like to meet you in the sewage line below the base at dusk. Don't be late"

With those words, Silver Sonic left the room, leaving Black Ray to his thoughts.

**Else Where**

Cream the Rabbit ran down the long half tube at a speed she couldn't control. Earlier that day, Tails had told her that she was too young to join Sonic's adventure. She intended to prove them wrong. How did she intend to do so? By collecting a Chaos Emerald of course.

First she and her chao cheese began hunting rings. Once they had collected enough, they searched for an entrance to the chaos zone.  
Once they did that they found themselves in this tube. Their goal:  
enough rings to get the chaos emerald.

Cream thought back to all the adventures she had joined Sonic on. The first time was when Sonic had saved her after Eggman captured her and her mother in an attempt to lure Sonic in. After that they quickly beat Eggman and saved Creams mother.

The next adventure was when Metal Sonic captured Cheese to copy Chaos' data from. Her, Amy and one other person that died tragically and no one missed. They all saved cheese and beat Metal Sonic. No one had seen him since.

And then, shortly after she joined Shadow and Sonic against the Black Arms.

Aftre that was a briefe adventure in the Twilight Zone.

The last time was the mission in space with Cosmo. Every one knew how that ended. With Cosmo dead and Tails distraught. Not to mention Shadow disappeared only to show up a few months later.

Of course, all those times she realized she hadn't done much.  
But they had been the greatest time in her life. She was determined this time she would make a difference. First by providing a chaos emerald, and then: who knows?

With that, she grabbed the last few rings and then the Chaos Emerald.  
Now all that was left was to find Tails and insist she join them.

**Else Where**

Tails flew down toward the ground at a very fast pace. At long last: he found who he was looking for.

"Sonic!" he shouted down to the blue hedgehog. Sonic looked up and smiled.  
"hey buddy!" he said, slowing down enough for Tails to catch up. "what's going on?" he asked  
"a lot, we need to talk" Tails replied  
"sure, go ahead" Sonic said, ready to listen.  
"so I think I figured out where Eggman got the material to perfect a Shadow clone- it's Black arm energy!"  
Sonic looked at him and asked "Where did Eggman get Black arm energy?"

"I don't know, but I think I can figure it our. On my way to Amy's I ran into a robot, stunned it, and scanned it's memory banks. It, along with an army of others, are too be at the Space Colony Ark in three days. That is where we go"

"Space Colony Ark Eh?" Sonic said  
"yes. Now by that time I can have the blue typhoon ready for lift off. I'll spend these next few day recruiting a battle crew. Can you be at my workshop that morning?"  
Sonic smiled and nodded  
"of course I can. See ya' then" Sonic said before increasing speed and running off.

Tails turned around. He knew where he could find a few people.

**Else Where**

Black Ray walked slowly through the sewer line below Eggman's base. With such a large pipe connection, he found himself surprised Eggman had kept hidden so long. But then again, Eggman was probably an expert at keeping a hidden base.  
Even one as large as this one.

"I've been expecting you" came a cold metallic voice. Black Ray looked to see Silver Sonic emerge from the shadows. As Black Ray stepped closer he realized that this was in fact not Silver Sonic.

He was for the most part a metallic blue, the rest of his body must have been blue at one point but a lot of it was scratched off the reveal a dull gray. up and down his arms and legs and even on his head metal chunks had been broken off to show wires and other components. The black glass that were his eyes had been cracked and broken in several places and the red in the center held a faint glow.

there was also a moter built in the center of his body built for speed that looked beyond repair.

Black Ray looked up and down at this helpless robot.

Was he even worth the effort to destroy? But if he said Eggman was lying to him then he had to find out how. "Who are you?" He asked

"I am Metal Sonic, your creator" The robot said in a cold metallic voice.

"My creator, but the doctor is my creator! what are you talking about?"

The robot's eyes changed somehow. If Black Ray didn't know better, he'd say he was smiling.

"I know it's hard for you to except, but only the Shadow clone part of your self was created by the doctor. I was the one who perfected you"

Black Ray took a moment to soak it all in "So you- and I? Explain!"

Metal Sonic slowly nodded. "I created a compound which I placed into the doctor's cloning tube through the use of my servant Silver Sonic."

"Why?"

"I need muscle Black Ray. I am old and worn. and you deserve power."

"So, What now?" Black Ray asked

"Now? now you must decide. Do you take the emeralds you posses and destroy me, or do you except my offer"

"As your servant?"

"No, as my accomplice"

Black Ray thought for a moment. If the doctor was lying to him then he didn't deserve to have black Ray as a servant.

"So, I kill the doctor, what of Sonic the Hedgehog?"

"Oh no Black Ray, we need the doctor. I want to know what he has planned. keep to his good side. and you may kill Sonic the hedgehog"

"So I kill Sonic, and spy on the doctor?"

Metal Sonic nodded again "And report to me or Silver Sonic. can you do that?"

"Yes" Black Ray said.

Metal Sonic put a hand to his "ear"

"You must go Black Ray. the doctor seeks you"

Black ray nodded before pulling out a Chaos Emerald

"Chaos Control" Black Ray said, teleporting back up to the base.

Metal Sonic looked up.

Yes, every thing would work out.

**And the mystery deepens! At this point, I would like my one or two readers to review. I take constructive critsisms, and I would like to Know what to keep, and what to tos.. Even a quick "I hate it" or "Okay story man" Would sufice, just so I know I have some glimor of an audience. and, to buliken the deal, I will take a look at your work! I may even review it.**

**Any way, enough begging on my part. check back in the next two weeks for Chapter eight! That is, if I have any readers. I wouldn't know!**


	9. The cannon's Fire: Part One

**Hello Internet. I am here just days after the last update to bring you chapter eight. In the way of my writing, this story is coming to a close, and I still only have the 11 reviews from five years ago and let me tell you, this story was lousy back then. But enough of my rambling, Here is:**

**The Cannon's Fire: Part One**

The leader of the metorex, Dark Oak, looked over from his large pod to his enemies in The Blue Typhoon, a large spacecraft that had been a problem far too long. But that was fine. This would end in a Metorex victory.

They had come so far in such a short time. a mere six months ago he and a group of military leaders had sensed a new threat: The Black Arms.

The Black Arms had began threatening their planet and he had gone to the leader to ask her permission to retaliate.

She had said no, the only way they would attack the Black Arms is if they actually attacked the planet.

After weighing his options, he decided the only way to keep safe from the black arms would be to level the playing field. He took his military and began stealing planet eggs, the source of life on the planets. This would serve to both give them power and keep resources from the Black Arms.

This all worked until the leader of his planet tried to stop him. It was then that he decided that the universe would be better without his planet.

That being decided, he attacked his planet, stole the planet egg, and killed every one who was not with him. well, almost every one. the leader's daughter: Cosmo, had escaped and located her own team of freedom fighters.

This group, led by Sonic the Hedgehog, Had done a considerable job retrieving planet eggs and holding back the metorex. Now, it was time to end that little party.

He looked out to see the blue typhoon fighting closer to his ship. this would all work perfectly.

**The Blue Typhoon:**

From his seat on the Typhoon, Tails pulled the ship in closer to the Metorex pod.

To his left, Cosmo sat managing the star charts and feeding information to the screen in front of them all.

In front of them on either side sat Cream and Amy managing the guns and destroying any large meteors that Dark Oak sent their way and doing a fine job.

Out side, Super Sonic and Super Shadow were fighting Dark Oak in their own way.

"Tails" Cosmo said, looking over in Tails' eyes. Tails could have had it like that forever, staring into her ocean blue eyes. But at the moment he had a battle to deal with. "According to my radar, they are emitting a powerful field of energy, possibly a shield."

Tails thought for a moment about what he just heard.

"Well, we can't turn back so we have to press on" He said.

Cosmo nodded and continued watching her radar.

Tails looked down to his cup holder where a small ring sat.

for the past few weeks Tails had struggled on weather or not to ask her.

Should he take it slow or, in light of all these recent space battles, would he ask her while he still had the time? It was a hard choice. But again, this was not the time.

All of a sudden, every one collapsed. Every one that is, but Cosmo.

"What's going on?" Tails asked weakly

Cosmo looked frightened. "What I was afraid of" She said "Dark Oak has emitted a shield that is draining the life force of every life form except plants. That's why I'm immune"

"What do we do?" Amy asked

Cosmo looked out to see Sonic and Shadow suffering from the same thing. Sonic who had risked his life on countless occasions.

And Tails. She deeply loved Tails. how could she let him die?

She couldn't. That was just it. She knew what she had to do. She didn't know if she could for sure, but she had to try.

She quickly left the bridge and the ship, into space.

Slowly, she moved towards the shield.

"Como" Sonic said, also weak "What are you doing out here?"

She smiled and said "My part" She positioned herself in front of the shield.

"When you can, you and Shadow get inside the power cannon"

With that, she moved into the shield, which backed away at her touch.

When She reached the round flag ship, there was a sudden burst of light, and when it cleared up, Cosmo was gone, replaced by a large tree.

"Cosmo?" Tails called out.

Her reply seemed to come from all around them.

"This is me Tails. I have the metorex immobilized. Now you can use the cannon to destroy their ship and release the planet eggs."

"How will you be getting out?" Tails asked

"You have to do this now" came Shadow's voice. "Me and Sonic are ready in the cannon"

Tails flipped the door on his aiming device, revealing the fire button.

His Thumb hovered over it.

"I can't do it Sonic." Tails said, tears pouring down his cheeks. "You can't ask me to shoot her"

"Tails" Came Cosmo's voice again "I have to do this. This is why I was sent here. I thank you for these past few months, but if we don't do this, the metorex will take over the galaxy. I can't let that happen. I care so much for you all of you. I love you Tails, and I won't ever forget you"

Tails sat there for a few moments before looking up to Cosmo. "I love you too Cosmo. good bye"

With that, Tails pushed the trigger. The cannon pulled the last of the typhoons power, sending Sonic and Shadow at the flag ship. as they hit, they shot through the ship to safety. a millisecond later, The ship blew up, taking the last of the metorex and Cosmo with it.

Tails dropped into his seat and began sobbing. How could he do that? Why did he do that? He could have shot a pulse shot and simply disabled the ship. He killed her, no, he murdered her. Amy quickly moved up to his side to comfort him.

Meanwhile out side, Sonic and Shadow watched as the planet eggs flew back to their homes.

Sonic felt a small object fly intro his hand. closer examination showed him that it was a seed.

Sonic grasped it in his hand and closed his eyes, mourning the loss of a friend.

"Sonic!" Shadow said.

Sonic opened his eyes to see a field of energy heading slowly forward, threatening to devour the Blue Typhoon.

"Let's do this Shadow" Sonic said preparing to use Chaos Control.

But before he could, Shadow threw his fist in Sonic's abdomen.

"Why don't you leave this to me" Shadow said with a grin "After all, we wouldn't want you to hurt yourself" Shadow removed his rings and obsorbed them into his body."Chaos control!" He shouted. In a flash of light, time around the energy field was frozen, the Master Emerald energized the Blue Typhoon instantly. But on top of all that, Shadow dissappeared. He was simply gone.

"Hold habits die hard" Sonic said before climbing aboard the Typhoon, and the ship slowly made it's way back to earth.

**Six months later:**

Tails' eye lids slowly opened. Yawning, he pushed him self up in his chair and looked over his cluttered desk. He had been working late into the night on upgrades and battle plans, preparing for the confrontation to come. It was tiring work. Tails supposed that was why he eventually drifted to sleep on the modest desk.

Tails straightened up his area, looking over star charts, blueprints, and strategy sheets. If his information was accurate, Eggman was preparing a fleet to get to his goal. And he needed it. The section of space he was going to was what many pilots referred to as "ghost space". This all seemed accurate, for any ship unlucky enough to pass by would be pelted by meteors that seemed to simply appear.

Tails would be lucky to survive out there with nothing but his own blue typhoon, but his crew was an exceptional one. Sonic the hedgehog, along with Shadow and some other very capable people. He wasn't too worried. His only regret was that he was not able to locate Knuckles. His strength would have been an asset, but no sense dwelling on the past.

Having looked over and perfected his plans he began rolling the large papers into cylinder shapes. Then, he picked up a bag and loaded it. Once done he grabbed a few choice objects and began locking up his work shop.  
After he was out his door he locked it and moved down his stairs to the ground.

He looked up at the bright blue sky. That's what he loved about the Mystic Ruins. It was quiet and beautiful. He slowly made his way to the small cellar doors. After pulling his keys out and unlocking the door,  
He walked into the pitch-black room.  
It took him a few moments of fumbling, he found the switch.

As the lights turned on down the long hanger, Tails' ship was iluminated.  
He looked at it with a smile on his face. It was truly a Beautiful ship.  
The blue typhoon was a five-thousand square foot space ship designed to fly at one light year a week(ish), give or take 3 days (probably give). And on top of that, it was armed with four machine gun like lasers, and a super cannon.

It was the greatest machine Tails had ever created. But also the worst. He walked around to the entrance where dozens of service robots were preparing for the voyage ahead. He walked down the corridor to the lift. After entering he searched for her floor from the options "1, 2, 3" and "bridge".  
Tails hit bridge and the lift went up three levels to the bridge and opened on either side. In front of him stood a door leading to the bridge. Behind him was a locked door.

Tails walked to the locked door, pulled out his keys, and walked in.

Past this door was another lift which brought Tails up about ten feet.  
At the top was a large room with a bed, galley, desk and various machines scattered about. His robots had done as commanded: clean it all, leave the projects.  
Tails walked to the other side of his old quarters to another door.

Behind this door was the bridge. The bridge was built with two elevated stations on either side. The left held the captain's stations while the station to the right belonged to the navigator. Behind the captain's chair was the entrance from the captain's quarters while the crew entrance was on the floor bellow.

Also Down there, on either side, were the gunners station and a booth in the corner was for the energy operator.  
In front of every thing stood a large window which also served as a computer screen.

The whole thing was as Tails left it, and it was ready for the battle to come.

Tails stepped forward and sat in his chair, looking over the quiet bridge.  
Then his gaze drifted to the right.  
He remembered looking over to the navigator's chair to see Cosmo's smiling face looking back at him.  
He missed her so much.  
He knew he was ready to marry her, but he wished he could have known her better. Known her without the metorex war, but he couldn't.

"Tails" she use to call him with her beautiful accent Tails could never figure out. Granted, he could never figure out any thing around her.  
His whole life seemed like a mistake when she came around, like he had wasted it all when he could have been knowing her.

Tails knew Sonic didn't care much for settling down. There were times He envied Sonic so much for this. He longed for the days before Cosmo when he was fine with living like he had: not a care in the world. He may never know the joy he felt those months, but he also wouldn't know the hell he had been it since.

After sitting there a while, Tails left the bridge. While waiting for Sonic and the others, we walked idly around the ship for what felt like hours. With each room he entered there was a memory attached.  
Eating many a meal with Cosmo in his mess hall, helping Cosmo with a party in this room, Cosmo's quarters was that room...  
That room?

Tails looked at the door leading to her quarters. He had asked his cleaning crew not to touch that room. Slowly, Tails made his way into it.

It was bright. By the wall was a bed, next to it was a desk, and then a blank wall to the wall with the door. It seemed so unfair now. She came and risked every thing to save the galaxy, and all he gave her was this small room for all her stuff. Tails looked around. She didn't really have any thing, did she? Tails opened a drawer where there were three dresses to change into. The drawer above that had a few personal effects, but nothing else. He still couldn't convince himself to clear this room.

After looking around one more time, he left the room and exited the ship.

As he walked out of the ship, there was Sonic the Hedgehog.

"Hey buddy" He said with a thumbs up. "Ya' ready"

Tails nodded "Sure am Just waiting for a few people"

"We're here" Came a voice.

Sonic and Tails looked up to see Shadow, Rouge, and Omega jumping down from a roof entrance.

"Prepared to engage the Doctor" Omega said

"here to help cutie" Rouge said

"Good now we just-"

"Tails!" a yell came from above. In a few moments, Amy jumped down from the cellar door and closed it behind her. "Oh" She said "Am I late?"

"Not at all, the ship is still being prepared, however, we still have a power source to discuss, last time we had the master emerald to get through space. this time I was unable to find Knuckles or the Master emerald, so I adjusted the Typhoon to operate on the power of two Chaos Emeralds"

HE held up his own Emerald "I found this one, but we still need a second, That's why, when the rest of my crew gets here, we'll head out. We only have a few hours so we'll split up and meet back-"

Tails words were cut off my the sound of a loud motor.

"Speak of the devil, here they are"

The group left the hanger and stepped out side where a large van pulled up and hit a rock.

The plates read "Vece srmy" and a sign painted on the side was scratched to the point where one could barely make out "Chaotix Detective Agency"

The van was pulled to a stop and turned off.

Tails' crew stood in silence as the drivers side door opened up, and Vector the Crocodile stepped out. "Sorry we're late" He said "'Had the hardest time cleaning up the computer room"

Vector stepped `around to the back door and slid it opened to reveal Espio the Chameleon ready to step down. But before he could, he was shoved out of the way by Charmy bee who flew out, landed and landed in front of Tails and saluted. Vector helped Espio to his feet who gave Tails a slight bow.

"You boys put on quite a show just walking over here" Rouge said

"Let the girl out!" Vector yelled at Charmy who just slammed the door. Espio jumped over and reopened the door.

"The girl?" Tails asked "Did you find me another crew member?"

"Well no," Vector replied "She found us"

Tails frowned as he saw who stepped out of the van: it was Cream the Rabbit.

"Cream I said no! Why'd you guys bring her here?"

"Well-" Vector started

"I paid them to" Cream finished for him. "and I thought you might enjoy this" She held out a sparkling cyan Chaos Emerald. "But I don't really want to part with it"

Tails shook his head. She was clever. He knew he didn't want her going out there with them, but he also remembered what a great aim Cream was when it came to the guns. Rationalizing that She would not take no for an answer, he agreed to let her come.

Within the hour Tails and his crew were ready for take off.

But across the ocean, So were Eggman and Black Ray. He had spent time planning and preparing a fleet to infiltrate Ghost Space and acquire what he and Black Ray needed to win against Sonic and eventually take over the world. Now, was the time. and there was nothing Sonic could do to stop him.

**There you have it. Please review so I can make The Cannon's Fire part two perfect (I've already writen it) But hey, At least I know I have ONE reader subscribed to this so please "Sonic-elric", Tell me what you think. Until next time,**

**-Rick Blaine from Rick's cafe Americain.**


	10. The Cannons Fire: Part Two

**Hello again dear readers. I took a two week break from my one-a-week comitment because I posted two last week. But any way, I understand I've been asked to continue, so here I am with:**

**The Cannon's Fire: Part Two**

"Is every thing ready?" Tails asked from his captain's chair on the bridge of the Blue Typhoon.

"Yes" they all replied.

Tails pulled a lever and the whole ship began shaking. From the out side, a camper watched as the ground a few meters from Tails' workshop opened up and the large space craft moved to a vertical position.

A few seconds later, smoke and fire rose into the air as the Blue Typhoon was propelled off the ground.

"all systems go!" Tails said.

Shadow pressed a button on a panel transferring Chaos Energy to the engine. After a long while, the Typhoon broke through the atmosphere at the speed of sound.

Tails pulled both control levers in opposite directions to point the ship toward the Space Colony ark and beyond that, Ghost Space. Another flip of a lever sped the ship up, offering to get them to their destination in minutes.

Tails looked at his dedicated crew.  
"This is it guys, the final battle, if you will" he said. He first looked to his left where Rouge was positioned as navigator. Below them on the ground were Amy and Cream at the threat stations, while Espio, Charmy and Vector were preparing to go down-deck and man three separate space fighters.

All the while, Sonic, Shadow and Omega prepared to head out to fight. Tails found himself thinking of how little the odds were in their favor. Eggman no doubt had a fleet and not to mention, Black Ray, The hedgehog that had gotten very close to eliminating Sonic on multiple occasions. But it didn't do good thinking about it, they would do what they always had done: fight to the best of their ability. Another thing to think about, was how Black Ray was unable to take on more then three opponents at a time, now they were throwing him ten. If the fleet went down easy, Black Ray might not be too big a problem.

"We're heading toward the location" Rouge said "and Doctor Robotic is here with a fleet, just as we expected"

Tails gestured for Rouge to bring it up on the screen. At her touch, it flickered to life. There were easily thirty large well armed ships at his disposal, and Black Ray was standing on the flag ship in the front. "Time to get this started" Sonic said with a smirk. Tails nodded.  
"right. Sonic, Shadow, You two get to the cannon bay , I'm going to transform it to launch you."  
Sonic and Shadow ran out of the room while Tails looked at Omega and Chaotix. "Omega, get to the outer hull and load your guns. Espio, Charmy, Vector, get into the ships and contact me when you do"  
The four obeyed the command and left the room.

"Amy, Cream" he said, pulling a switch and activating the cannon for Sonic and Shadow. "you two get ready to fire at the ships. Focus on one at a time until said ship is disabled, understand?"  
"yes sir!" Cream replied.  
Amy sat silent for a second as if thinking of a sarcastic remark, but gave up and moved to focus all her attention on her aiming panel.

"Tails, we're in" came Vectors voice over the com.  
"good, I'm going to launch you when we get closer. Flying is easy: simply move the wheel, and press the red button to fire, got it?"

"sure"  
"understood"  
Um... Yeah"  
Came their voices.

"I hate to be like this, but failure is not an option. Eggman has something big planned and we need to prevent them"

Every one nodded.  
"Sonic, are you guys in the cannon?"  
"Roger buddy" Sonic replied.  
Tails pulled yet another switch and the cannon began charging.

"we're getting close" Tails said, watching how close they were getting to Eggman's fleet  
"3" he said  
"2" he aimed the cannon for the back most ship.

I'm that instant, Black Ray snapped his head back to see the Typhoon approaching. With a wave of his hand, five ships turned around and dived for Tails.  
"one" he finished. He pressed a button and a switch at the same time, sending the Chaotix out, and Sonic and Shadow flying.

The Chaotix began circling and shooting one ship, while Sonic and Shadow shot right through the engine of another, disabling it.  
With that one out and the other occupied, only three made it through and began firing at the Typhoon.

Amy and Cream focused on the left one while Tails Shot a cannon blast at the middle ship, but only doing half the damage of Sonic and Shadow.

The Left ship took heavy damage damage and was forced to circle back while the center one's shooting was halted if only for a few seconds. Meanwhile, the right ship was unscratched and completed it's run over the Typhoon, damaging the now straining shield.

"Not good" Tails muttered to himself. In that moment, the middle ship's cannons came back on line and began pounding the typhoon again.  
It took only a moment for Cream and Amy to disable the ship. Tails smiled, but only briefly as he realized the disabled ship was about to collide with his Typhoon. Thinking quickly, he yanked his controls sending the ship in a barrel roll like maneuver in an attempt to dodge Eggman's ship. But it failed, as the ship hit a wing and sent a shock wave through the shield, fusing several circuits.

When he looked up, the other two fighters took advantage of the distraction and swooped down, firing lasers at the bridge, rattling the occupants.

"left one!" Tails called to Amy and Cream, realizing his cannon was out of range. The torrents spun around and destroyed the left ship.

"no!" Tails looked down at the pressure gauge. The lasers had formed minuscule cracks in the screen and oxygen was slowly leaking out. Meanwhile, the last fighter was circling again, further damaging the hull through what little was left of the shield.  
"Take him down" Tails ordered,  
But without the other ships hindering it, it evaded most of the torrents with ease.

Just as Tails was ready to quit, Sonic and Shadow spindashed through the Ship's engine. .

As it was descending and about to crash into the typhoon, Omega jumped out and shot it away.

As this finished, Chaotix finished destroying their target and returned to formation. A smile returned to Tails' face.  
"Okay guys, we can do this!" he cheered.

Meanwhile, a similar smile spread on Black Ray's lips. He swung his arms and another group of five fighter took a U-turn and engaged Tails and his crew.

Sonic and Shadow flew at the first ship and began working their methods on it's destruction. Chaotix took out one and moved on to the next by the time Sonic and Shadow had disabled two and Cream and Amy easily destroyed the last one while Tails assisted Chaotix.

"Perfect every one!" Tails congratulated. It had taken a bit of warming up, but they were on fire now.

Black Ray looked back and frowned. "Suit your self, Sonic the Hedgehog" he swung his hand sending ten ships toward the Typhoon. "Chaos control" he muttered. In an instant, he was next to Omega on the Typhoon. In another instant he had released a bolt of energy, damaging the red robot, and sending his spiraling off the ship. Sonic and Shadow looked back at their adversary.

"Came back to press your luck?" Sonic called, stepping forward. Shadow followed, watching Black Ray carefully.  
"Chaos Spear" Black Ray said, making the first move.  
Sonic and Shadow quickly dodged a most unexpected spread of Spears.

As their battle began, the ten ships charged at the Typhoon. "Espio, Charmy, Vector; split up!" On his order, Chaotix split and each took a separate Ship. Espio pulled up to the fighter on the far left and began circling it, dropping lasers on it's hull, meanwhile dodging it's projectiles. An easy task given his training in martial arts. After all, this was about quick precise movement and unmarred hand-eye coordination. Not to mention, he had to be looking for a weak spot. What wasn't easy, was taking a large ship out with one this small. But if he didn't he wouldn't get paid.

Espio's eyes examined the ship and his gun's effect on it. Searching for some sort of vulnerable spot while making sure the enemy never found his. He was doing considerably well until he glanced to the left.

As Chaotix engaged The first three ships, Tails watched the other seven surge toward them.  
"full spread" he ordered.  
Cream and Amy sent a spread of lasers, holding the seven ships back as they broke formation to avoid getting hit. "perfect" he said. Watching a ship that had moved to an unthoughtful position. He quickly hit a trigger, sending a blast from his cannon hurling toward the unfortunate ship, who's central controls and engines were vaporized on impact. Tails pulled his controls to the left to avoid the other six ships heading toward him.

With their target out of range, the fighters took another U-turn and circled around to drop their load on the typhoon.

"their coming back around, get ready" Tails said. Amy and Cream took aim and shot down one ship, but the other five pushed through and completely deactivated the Typhoon's shield.

Amy and Cream tried desperately to shoot the passing ships, but every time they took one down, another took it's place. the Typhoon was being battered. Tails thought hard about just what to do. then it hit him: There was nothing he could do.

Meanwhile, Sonic and Shadow weren't doing much better and Black Ray had moved the fight through the hull of the ship and slowly down a hall to the engine room where the Chaos emeralds were.

"Chaos blast" Blac k Ray said, but before the blast could be released, Sonic and Shadow took his standing still as an opportunity to attack, knocking his concentration off.

Once he was down to the ground, Black Ray knocked them off by swinging his arms, once done, he threw spears to get them away and continued to get back on his feet.

But his problem was stuill standing in front of him: Shadow and Sonic were blocking his way to the chaos emeralds. He had tried teleporting in there, but some machine prevented it.

_An idea _Black Ray thought. He took a deep breath in preparation and lunged forward toward Shadow, eyes on the golden rings latched on his wrist. He would have no chance charging through them, but charging at them he might could pull off.

When he hit Shadow, he grabbed on to his wrist as the black-red hedgehog pushed him to the ground, trying to get him off, but no simple tactics would work on Black Ray. He held his own, determined to get the ring, even Sonic's persistent poundings proved insufficient to Black Ray's will.

At last, Black Ray managed to rip the ring from his left wrist and kick him self off. But much to his dismay, Shadow had gained an edge and managed to Knock him into the wall and hit multiple times with his fist. Black Ray felt his conciseness drifting. He knew he couldn't die. He learned this from the weeks of torture he had suffered in return for failing to kill Sonic on two occasions.

"I need you Black Ray, come here" It was the female voice again. It was soft and pleasant. Was that death? Did he want to die, his body just wouldn't let him?

No he couldn't. He had a job to do. He vision slowly returned to him. Shadow threw Black Ray to Sonic who flipped him and slid him into a wall down the hall.

Black Ray smiled. what a mistake it was, putting distance between them. He grabbed the golden ring and absorbed it into his body. "Chaos control" Black Ray said.

Shadow's eyes widened as he realizd what Black Ray was doing. But it was too late. Black Ray's body illuminated with Chaos energy as he charged forward, knocking Sonic and Shadow out of his path and bursting into the engine room.

"Sonic" Shadow shouted. Sonic nodded knowing what he had to do. While Black Ray ran to the Chaos Emerald on one side of the room, Sonic dashed to the other and grabbed the other.

As Sonic grabbed one emerald he looked up to see Black Ray just feet away. He didn't know what to do, he just knew he had to do something. Acting entirely on instinct, he raised the Chaos Emerald. "Chaos Control" He shouted. Before Black Ray could hit him, he froze in midair.

For a moment, Sonic thought he had frozen time but Black Ray weakly backed away. He lunged again only to be stopped be what ever Sonic did.

Reluctantly, Black Ray said: "Chaos control" and vanished.

Sonic put the emerald back on the energy receiver and passed out, exhausted after what ever he had just done.

Chaotix limped back onto the bridge after their ships werre disabled.

"What do we do now Tails?" Vector asked

"I don't know" He replied

"Tails" Rouge said, returning after destroying a few ships from the inside.

"Eggman has something else up his sleeve"

"Put it on screen" Tails ordered. In a moment, Tails saw a large cannon come out of Eggman's flag ship and aim at the Typhoon, followed by it charging.

"I'm reading that it's very vulnerable. hit it with our cannon and it will back fire and disable it's energy source as well as the whole ship's. not to mention we would knock out it's main computer and all these little ships might deactivate and we would win this"

Tails nodded "Prepare the cannon"

In a few seconds the cannon was ready to fire and Tails put his thumb over the trigger.

"Just one moment" Tails said,

"Tails, you have to do this now"

A flood of memories washed over Tails.

He couldn't shoot her. Shoot who? Was any one over there?

Someone was. Was it Cosmo? If he didn't shoot she would live.

"I can't do it, she's over there!" Tails said shaking his head

"Who's over there?" Amy asked,

"She is! She'll die! I can't do it. No one do any thing!" He said

"Tails, fire, fire now!"

"I can't"

Realizing what had to be done, Rouge flew up so she could fire the cannon, but it was too late.

Eggman's cannon fired, and hit the Blue Typhoon, destroying a large chunk of it and sending it toward earth. in a matter of minutes, The ship was in the atmosphere.

"Tails! Amy called, working her way next to him. "You know flying better then any of us, you need to land this ship!"

"I can't she'll die, she'll die. you can't ask me to shoot her!"

"If this ship crashes we'll all die" Amy said "If we crash she will die"

"She's dead, isn't she?"

"Not yet" Amy said, trying to work with Tails "But she will if you don't land this ship!"

"Okay" Tails said, grabbing the controls.

He lifted the nose of the ship so they crash landed in a large valley area.

every one was a little shaken but no one was dead. after landing, the shock wave knocked Tails out and he had to be carried by Amy and Cream.

Once they were all out (Including Sonic and Shadow limping out worse then Chaotix) they looked at the damage done to the ship. it was amazing they all weren't dead. but odds are the Typhoon would never fly again.

"The ruins and Tails' work shop not that far" Any said, "We'll regroup there"

Every one nodded and began the trek there.

"Shadow" Sonic said. "Did you see what I did with Chaos Control?" Shadow nodded

"I think that might be our advantage over him" Shadow replied

"If only I was a little better with my Chaos control"

"Well," Shadow said "I could train you. given you had the ability to drop the airy attitude and take some instruction."

Sonic smirked "One thing at a time Shadow." He said winking

"But yes"

Eggman looked up and down at the capsule in front of him. It had a blob similar to what Black Ray use to be inside of it.

"Black Ray" Eggman said "The offering"

Black Ray stepped forward with his four Chaos Emeralds. "Chaos control"

He said, opening the capsule.

The blob floated out and examined Black Ray. in a few moments it had transformed into a Blood Red hedgehog with wild spike and blood shot eyes. it wore no gloves or shoes, but quickly formed some from the meteorite around him.

"Black Ray my brother" The hedgehog said

"I am Blood Ray"

**And thus, another OC. I know some of you are rolling your eyes, maybe you dont't like Ocs, or maybe you don't like how I named them, but fear not, the point of Ocs in this story is to assist in Character development because as the titals says, this is only Act One of an arch I am working on. (But again, fear not nnone of these acts end on a cliff hanger, and they will be written so they can be read independantly. ) But that's quite enough of my ramblings. I will be back next week with Chapter Ten.**


	11. Chapter Ten

**Well internet, yes I was lazy. It has been a month since I last updated and I have nothing but a handfull of excuses. However, I am back now with chapter Ten and the introduction of the Character from the end of Chapter Nine.**

**So, here you are:**

**Chapter Ten: **

Knuckles looked up at his goal and smiled. For days, he had been searching for this oak tree and finally, he had found it. It was large, much larger then it was when a glass worker had made the stain glass window where Knuckles had seen it originally. The window also showed it as a single tree in a valley, now it was the largest tree in a forest full of similar trees.

There was something significant about that tree, something that would give him some clue about his family history. He just could not put his finger on what it could mean. So far this whole trip had been a waste. First he ran into his great-great-great-great-grandfather's house after being banished from his village. Knuckles had learned what village and went there and the village lead him here. What was here? Could anything still be here after so many years?

Knuckles put his hand against the ancient bark and circled the tree. Nothing was carved there. Some digging showed that nothing was buried any where near that tree. Knuckles climbed the tree and looked around. All he could see were trees. Lots of trees.

Knuckles began climbing down using the spikes on his gloves. When he was almost down, he dug his spikes in a part of the bark, and pulled it out. But as he did that, the bark came forward, as if it had been cut out and put back in.

In a few seconds Knuckles had dug out the bark and found a notch in the tree, but what caught his attention was the contents of the notch. Sitting there, rusted but still intact, was a orange key. A key Knuckles hadn't a clue where it went to. After grabbing it and returning to the ground, he turned the key over in his hand several times.  
"well, now what?" he said to himself.  
He had an old key, but there were hundreds of old locks. Then it struck him, he looked closely at the key to notice a shape had been carved in the key: the shape of the master emerald!

Knuckles smiled. He knew where this lock was. He was so very close to his goal.

**Else Where:**

Black Ray looked across the room to his so called "brother" Blood Ray. So far, all he had said was his name and since then had kept his silence.

They had all returned to Egg Man's base and began combat training. first the same training Black Ray had worked on with Silver Sonic and then they moved to one on to mocfights.

All the while, Black Ray wondered if Blood Ray had any thing to do with Metal Sonic. He considered asking, but thought better of it because: One; Egg Man was there, Two; He might not know any thing and Black Ray would simply give away his position.

Finally, Eggman was out of sight and Black Ray saw his opportunity to question Blood Ray.

"Who are you" Was his first question

"I told you, I am Blood Ray"

Black starred into the bright crimson eyes and saw the reflection of his own pearly white ones.

"But what are you?"

"I am you, in a way. I was the one the Doctor used to perfect you. but that's all I can tell you"

"Why?"

"Why any thing Black Ray?"

In his frustration, Black Ray's eye flashed a dull red.

In one move, Black Ray grabbed Blood Ray by the neck and pounded him to the wall.

"Answer me!"

Blood Ray grimaced. "Chaos Control" He said.

As the words slipped his mouth, Black Ray was thrown to the ground.

With a swing of Blood Ray's hand, a large gash appeared on Black Ray's body appeared. Unlike all his other wounds, even the ones he received in his last battle with Sonic, a strange red liquid poured from his body. a feeling of weakens over came Black Ray. "What?"

This happened to people that He injured. What was happening to him?

Blood Ray smiled down to Black Ray.

"Do not play me. You are not invincible with me"

With another swing, another gash appeared.

"And I find no fear in telling you that the same applies to me" Blood Ray put his hand to Black Ray "Chaos control" With that, the wound closed. Leaving nothing but a scar and much pain. Not to mention the blood now staining the floor.

Afterwards, Blood Ray helped Black Ray to his feet. At this point, he didn't know what to think. he was certainly intimidated.

"Now that the Doctor is gone, which is undoubtedly why you approached me with your questions" Blood Ray said "How about we begin our lesson"

Black Ray frowned "We've been in training for hours" Black Ray said.

Blood Ray grinned again. "Lessons, not training" He said, looking into Black Ray's eyes.

"Fight this" Blood Ray said "Chaos Control!"

With that, a large burst of energy shot from his hand and into Black Ray.

Black Ray screamed from the tremendous pain it caused him. this was far worse then any of the torture he had received.

"Fight the pain" Blood Ray said, taking far too much pleasure out of watching Black Ray suffer.

But he didn't know how to fight the pain. it was too much. finally, his body began shutting down. it seemed Blood Ray was correct: He could very well die if Blood Ray wished it. Is this how Sonic felt? Of course, Black Ray didn't have friends to get him out of this. Even Eggman was no where to be seen. But even if he was, would he stop Blood Ray? Did he need Black Ray any more?

But now, even in his friendlessness he heard that beautiful, friendly, comforting female voice "Come here Black Ray. I need you" but that was fallowed up by a much heavier voice "I meant nothing by it!"

Before he could inquire about the voice, He snapped back into reality. and he was now back in his misery with Blood Ray constantly saying " Fight the pain!" But how could he?

Finally, Black Ray's eyes flashed to White and brow to pure red.

"Alright, I'll fight the pain" He said, In an instant, he swung his body upward, and threw the Chaos Energy off himself. "Chaos Blast" A field of Chaos Energy began rapidly heading for Blood Ray, who held out his hand and sent it in reverse toward Black Ray, Who simply absorbed it back into himself, and looked back at Blood Ray.

"Perfect"

Shadow paced back and fourth, looking over his temporary student, measuring him up. Could he be ready to handle such incredible challenges Chaos control would present?  
He would be, Shadow decided. He was Sonic the Hedgehog after all. He had faced greater challenges and emerged with a cocky grin and his thumb flying like a flag on a national holiday. He may be arrogant, but he had performed a hand full of chaos moves. Now the job was to perfect them.

"well Sonic" he said to the blue hedgehog "we will begin with what you've done before. Not a vital ability, but it's very useful as you've witnessed. Simply take your emerald" he said. Sonic pulled out his white jewel. "and teleport from here" he said pointing at Sonic "To any point visible from where I stand. Go"

with that, Sonic prepared himself and held his chaos emerald out. "chaos-" before he could finish, Shadow kicked him in the face, knocking him on the ground.  
"What's up Shadow?"  
"you think Black Ray or any one would give you that kind of time?" Shadow asked. "go now!"  
This time Sonic moved quickly (which actually worked better for him) and quickly forced out "Chaos control" In a moment, Sonic had moved several yards behind Shadow. But before he could do any thing else, Shadow jumped forward and grabbed Sonic's shoulder, forcing him to the ground.

Acting on instinct, Sonic tried to flip him off, but it was no use. Shadow's position offered him an advantage over Sonic, using his own strength against him. "you may feel weak and sick, but you cannot show it. Or else this would happen. If I were Black Ray I would be in a position to kill you here and now" Shadow let go of Sonic and He flipped back. "go again"

"Chaos Control" Sonic said. Sonic once again appeared a few meters from Shadow. Shadow lunged for Sonic, but this time Sonic rolled out of the way and tripped Shadow. The two then threw themselves at each other, trying to get the better of one another, but Sonic's speed and agility matched Shadow's strength. After this had gone on for too long, Shadow grew irritated.  
"Stop!" he ordered. Sonic jumped back and looked up at Shadow.

"you did fine, but got carried away. This is not combat training, so pull yourself together" Shadow said  
"Pull myself together? You said that-"  
"let's move on"

Sonic frowned, crossed his arms, and impatiently tapped his foot on the ground.

"we move on" Shadow said "I want to see a good round of Chaos Spears, now"

Sonic quickly prepared, held out his emerald and said "Chaos Spear" As had happened weeks before, a spear shot from his hand the color of the emerald he used to trigger it. it hit a near by tree and blew it in half. Shadow rolled his eyes "I said, round, not one"

Sonic shook his head "Fine, Chaos Spear!" This time, Sonic concentrated on continuing the attack after calling the command. By the time he was done, eight spears had destroyed eight trees.

Sonic stumbled back a few feet trying to fight off the weakens, but it was no use. after a few moment's a small object knocked him off his feet. He looked up to see Shadow who had tossed a rock at his chest.

"When preforming Chaos Control, you cannot let the weakness get to you. eventually when you've used it as much as I have, the weakens fades. So always practice" Shadow said, thinking about what they would do next.

"To inflict mass damage, say 'Chaos Blast' and concentrate on emitting a lot of energy at once. it is without doubt, one of the most difficult move to successfully accomplish. and will leave you far more drained then the spears or teleportation. Go!"

Shadow considered stepping back, but the pattern would likely repeat it's self. Sonic would fail the first time.

Sonic focused all his attention on the Chaos Emerald. "Chaos blast!"

Sonic began glowing,

Shadow looked onto him. Then he realized that the blast should have been released by now.

When Shadow took a step closer, Sonic lost his glow and fell down, unconscious.

For many years it sat, waiting for it's call. waiting to come forth into the world and do what it had been born for. Now it came. a signal from it's waiting master.

It was time.

slowly, it crawled from it's hive, prepared to gather power.

It longed for blood, and blood it would have.

For how else could it please it's master?

**There you are. I'll continue to try to update weekly, but no promises. **


	12. Chapter Eleven

**Hey, I'm sorry I've een unable to keep up th eonce-a-week thing. The internet has been lousy here in Longview and then I was busy in a show.**

**But I'm free now, and bringing you all:**

**Chapter Eleven**

Tails sat, thinking in desperation. Here, he was honestly and hopelessly stumped. For all intents a purposes, he had failed. He failed Sonic, failed Shadow, failed everyone.

And yet, they all forgave him. He was asked to do one simple thing that he couldn't do, and in turn they all lost their battle against Black Ray. And, Eggman had accomplished what ever he had gone up to do. Now he was more determined then ever to come up with something to beat Eggman, but he didn't know what that something was.

On top of all that, his grand ship: the Blue Typhoon, was completely destroyed, putting tails billions of dollars in the hole. Not to mention, he had to deal with his nervous breakdown, which no doubt was caused by his own self-implemented preasure which in turn brought up the memories of shooting Cosmo the year before.

"What are you thinking about?" asked Cream.

Tails looked over and smiled at the young rabbit. "Just what to do next" he said.

Cream frowned "But you did everything you could" she said "what now?"

"I don't know" he said, leaning back in his chair.

She was correct, he had done everything he could. But then again, they did have an advantage. Sonic was now Learning more advanced Chaos Control. But then it was up to him. What was their next plan? He didn't know. But he would, and he wouldn't mess it up this time around.

"What did you do last time? Mother says what you've done is the best place to begin!" She said with a smile.

Tails shrugged. That may just be the only place to begin "I got Chaos emerald-"

"Then I got a chaos emerald"

"Then I got information, just not enough information. Then-"

At that, a large grin appeared on Cream's face. Tails looked over and raised an eye brow.  
"what is it" he asked  
"we just figured out what we need"  
"what? More chaos emeralds?"  
"no, silly! More information!"

Tails thought about this for a few long minutes. Yes, more information would definitely help.  
"But where do we start?" he asked  
"we search Doctor Eggman's bases!" she replied enthusiastically.  
"his bases?"  
"yes, and I know how you can find their locations!"

==============

Tails and Cream looked face to face at one of Eggman's robots.

It was short, round, red, and caried two guns that began shooting.

Tails and Cream began flying in order to evade it, and then, came down on it, Tails slicing through it and Cheese knocking hole in it. The robot then fell back, deactivated.  
"do what you do Tails!" Cream said happily.

Tails walked over to the deactivated robot with a tool box.

His first objective was to deal with the damage.

"Dang!" He exclaimed

"What is it? Cream asked.

"What I was afraid of. I hit an important chip, frying at least three internal circuits, and cheese shot through the energy source, killing all power going to the memory"

Cheese dropped down as if ashamed.

"It's alright Cheese" Cream said "What does that mean Tails"

"It means I can't extract the information here" He said "But I think we may still have a chance. help me bring this to the Tornado"

Cream and Tails then carried the robot to the plane, loaded it in the cargo hold, and took off.

Once back at his workshop in the Mystic ruins, Tails began repairs to the robot's memory bank.

As soon as he was through he smiled at Cream.

"Alright, here is what we are going to do"

**Elsewhere**

Sonic opened his eyes to see Shadow staring down at him with a scolding glare.

"Do explain just what happened" He said

Sonic felt humiliated failing in this way. But he wasn't going to let Shadow know that.

"Don't know" He said, winking. "Guess I'm gonna have to try again"

Shadow backed away as Sonic prepared to try it again.

"Chaos Blast!" He said, thinking about a large blast hitting Shadow.

With that, a field of Chaos Energy launched from Sonic, destroying everything in it's path. before it reached Shadow though, Sonic stopped and collapsed to his knee.

"Brilliant" Shadow said sarcastically "Stop before hitting your opponent. what are you planning to do then?"

"I just figured you weren't worth the energy" Sonic said with a thumb up. "What's next?"

Shadow closed his arms and began thinking again. He had covered the basics. Sonic knew how to start a time warp and change into Super Sonic. What else was needed? Except whatever he did to Black Ray. What was that any way? One way to find out.

"What was it that you used against Black Ray?" Shadow asked

Sonic shrugged. "I don't know" He replied. "It just seemed natural. like my body was doing it on it's own"

Shadow nodded "That is what the Chaos Emeralds will do in events of desperation" He said, remembering an event from years past.

Shadow had been walking down the hall of the space colony ark when he saw Gerald Robotnik running down the hall.

"What is it Doctor Robotnik?" Shadow asked, running alongside him.

"It's Maria"

Shadow's stomach dropped. "What happened to her?" Shadow asked panicked.

"She's been kidnapped by one of my 'partners'. He's holding her ransom. he wants you dead"

Shadow thought for a moment "You should do it"

Gerald shook his head and stopped in a storage room. "I will not kill you Shadow."

"If it means Maria's safety then-"

"I won't take another person from her" He said, pulling a gun from a cabinet. "But you and I are going to save her"

"Where is she?"

"East control room"

Shadow grabbed Gerald's hand. "Chaos Control!"

In an instant, they were both face to face with one of Gerald's partner holding a knife to Maria's throat.

"Stop this at once" Gerald said, holding the gun up.

The partner looked up. "I'll give you once chance Doctor. Shoot Shadow or I will kill her"

Shadow looked at Gerald and nodded. In an instant, Gerald pulled the trigger, killing the partner.

A second later, Shadow and Maria appeared in front of him.

"Shadow! She's hurt" Gerald yelled

Shadow looked to see the color draining from her face her neck bled onto the blouse she was wearing. Then Shadow's instincts kicked in.

"Chaos control" He said. In a few moments, the Chaos energy had mended Maria's wound and forced the blood cells to quickly replace the lost blood.

Maria sat up and hugged her grandfather.

"I love you Maria" Gerald said

"I love you too. Thank you" She cried.

"I wasn't working alone" He told her.

She then turned to Shadow and embraced him. "Thank you Shadow. I love you"

Shadow didn't know what to say he just put his arms around her and looked up at Gerald who was smiling at him.

Shadow had learned that the Chaos Emerald were the ones who had used him to heal her. after all, he didn't know that it was even possible to use Chaos Control like that. But now Sonic had experienced basically the same thing.

Shadow decided he and Sonic would figure out what he did the same way Shadow did.

"That Chaos Control you used on Black Ray, What did it feel like?" Shadow asked

Sonic thought for a moment. What did it feel like?

"Well, It was like I was holding on to Black Ray and I could use him like a puppet if I were a little stronger"

Shadow raised an eye brow. interesting.

"It sounds like-" Shadow stopped himself.

That was the feeling Shadow got when he used Chaos Control to physically move a Chaos Emerald toward him. But what would that mean? He supposed he could knock down the theory right there before making any final conclusion.

"Sonic" Shadow said "There is Chaos ability that is easily the hardest to use. But it also has very little use. it is simply manipulating the Chaos emerald's movements. you simply say 'Chaos Control' and try to make it float. You used it by instinct as Super Sonic when you flung them across the galaxy"

Sonic shook his head "But that felt completely different" Sonic said.

Shadow smiled "Of course it did. Every thing feels different when we are in our super forms"

"I guess so." Sonic said

Shadow gestured toward the Chaos Emerald "Try it"

Sonic shrugged again. He gathered his concentration, held the Chaos Emerald and called "Chaos Control!" Suddenly the Chaos Emerald began shaking in Sonic's hand.

"This is it Shadow!" Sonic called "This is what I was doing!"

Shadow looked up. "Now lift it in the air"

"I"m trying" Sonic said

"There is no trying, lift it now!"

Sonic tried harder and harder to lift it in the air, but couldn't.

"Do it now Sonic! How do you expect to beat Black Ray if you can't lift an Emerald!"

With one last push, Sonic collapsed to the ground.

Shadow walked to his side. "What was that?" Shadow asked.

"It was me trying faker" Sonic said angrily "But hey, I've learned what I need to. I want to check on Tails."

Sonic said this and then ran off.

Shadow considered running after him, but there was no point. If Sonic wanted to give up on Chaos Control, that was his choice. Shadow had other things to think about. like the results of that test. If he was correct, Then Sonic could have the upper hand against Black Ray.

**Elsewhere**

"So Blood Ray" Black Ray said "What now?"

Blood Ray looked over at Black Ray. "We have learned that you may be vulnerable to Sonic the Hedgehog's Chaos Control, and further more, you can't shut it off."

Black Ray looked away "I tried, but I couldn't. I don't know how"

"I doesn't matter" Blood Ray said "What we need to do is emotionally disrupt Sonic"

Blood Ray and Black Ray walked into a room where someone else was waiting for them. he wore a full body suit and an armored helmet. Black Ray got the impression that this was for two reasons. one, He wanted his identity secret, and two it would help if he was attacked. One thing Black Ray knew for sure: He was dangerous.

Blood Ray smiled. "Black Ray, this is- Well, I don't don't know her name, but they call her X-Fire."

X-Fire nodded and said "It's a pleasure"

Black found himself surprised that he was actually a she.

"And what will she be doing to Sonic?" Black Ray asked.

"I have given her another target" Blood Ray said smiling "And one thing is for sure. Sonic will be too distressed to fight us"

**Elsewhere:**

The creature crawled through the back ally where it could not be spotted. of course, It's master will expect it to be strong. so perhaps it should hunt for unsuspecting pass-byers.

Slowly, it stalked after the two Beaver siblings walking from a movie theater.

They wouldn't see it coming.

_Master will be pleased._

**There you have it. I'll continue to try once a week, but no promises. **

-Rick** Blane**


	13. Chapter Twelve

**Here I is with:**

**Chapter Twelve**

The Tornado flew low over a valley east of Apotos. It's pilot, Miles Prower sat controlling the air craft whilst searching the ground. Beside him sat Cream the rabbit, and behind him sat Amy Rose and holding on to the wing was Sonic the Hedgehog. all four of them had their eyes fixed to the ground.

"I don't see him any where" Sonic said "What now buddy?"

Tails thought for a moment. "He should be here"

"How do you know?" Amy asked.

"My superb tracking skills" Tails bragged

Amy rolled her eyes.

"There he is!" Cream reported excitedly.

The party looked down to see Shadow the Hedgehog running along side Rouge the bat.

Tails brought down the plain to the left of them.

Shadow looked at Sonic for a moment with a "you again" look, and then stared at Tails with a look that reminded him that he had failed them all. Tails wanted desperately to look away, but that would only mean Shadow would win, and that was no way to appear, especially considering he had a plan to live down his little break down. and if it worked, it might even mean Shadow would regain his Chaos Control, but Tails was almost hoping it wouldn't.

"I assume you came here for a good reason, and not to explain your tremendous failure?" Shadow asked over the plane's engine.

Tails frowned while Sonic jumped down next to Shadow, the anger showing in his face.

"Lay off Shadow. didn't you fail when it came to Maria" Shadow snapped his head toward Sonic, not believing he would dare to bring up Maria.

"And you, you couldn't stick through training. where is that heroic hedgehog I've heard so much about?" Shadow said

"This is isn't about me, or you" Sonic yelled back "I don't want to hear you say a word against Tails!"

"I think Miles is perfectly capable of defending his own honor Sonic" Shadow said "And I think he owes Rouge, you, I, and anyone else who joined him in space for leading a mission when he was not mentally able"

Sonic had heard enough. using all of his strength, he tossed himself onto Shadow, knocking them both down and causing them to fall behind the Tornado.

Cream looked back in a panic. "Tails! We need to get back there"

"Sure thing!" Tails replied.

Tails pulled the plane to a higher altitude and sent it into a dive. _Hope this works_ Tails thought, holding his finger above the newly installed silver switch.

He pressed it, and the engine turned off.

"Tails!" Amy screamed "What do you think you're doing?"

Tails' lack of a reply served to increase Amy's worries. Was he having another breakdown? She would like to say he wasn't, but after that recent mission she, like Shadow, may never be able to trust Tails the same way again. Or at the least, not for a long while.

Just as she was about to take matters into her own hands, the engine shot back to life. but this time it wasn't pushing them forward, it was propelling backwards, slowing their decent. Tails looked back and gave Amy a nervous smile. "I guess I need to work on the delay." He said before turning back around.

Focusing, he landed the plane perfectly a few yards behind Sonic and Shadow's erupting fight.

The three hoped out of the plane and Tails made a few gestures to Rouge toward Shadow and Sonic. Understanding, She gave him a weak smile and nodded. Tails knew what it meant- She would go along with it, but she wasn't happy about Tail's failed mission either.

Together, they moved toward Sonic and Shadow.

Rouge tripped Shadow while Tails pulled a struggling Sonic away.

"Stop it Sonic" Tails said "it's not worth it" Tails frowned, realizing he should have said 'I'm not worth it'.

Shadow got to his feet. "That was truly the most implosive action you have ever performed" Shadow said.

"Same for you, Shadow" Rouge and Tails said simultaneously.

Sonic and Shadow looked at the two, both slightly ashamed it took Rouge and Tails to stop their fight.

Cream and Amy both joined the group.

"So Shadow," Tails said "I understand you don't trust me after what happened. But I am not leading this mission" Tails put his hand on Cream's shoulder "Cream is"

At first Shadow held a look of amusement, then he realized Tails wasn't joking.

Sonic raised an eye brow, but then a thumb.

"I don't care who leads this mission, as long as my and Amy get told what said mission is!" He said enthusiastically. Cream excitedly hopped to the middle.

Rouge place a her palm in her face, but listened none the less.

"So we needed more information, we got it from a robot, now we know where Doctor Eggman's bases are, and then we chose the best four to search, and that's what we are doing." Cream said in her little-girl voice.

Shadow shrugged. She may be young, but that briefing was just what it was supposed to be: brief, while giving all the details necessary.

"And how will we be split up?' Rouge asked

Tails handed Cream three maps. Cream in turn handed one to Sonic and one to Rouge.

"You and Mr. Shadow, Mr. Sonic and Mrs Amy and me and Tails." Cream said. "So we meet back in front of the national Bank in Central city" She finished

They looked down at their maps, nodded, and split up. Tails and Cream in the Tornado with everyone else running in their own directions.

Knuckles stood at last at what would hopefully be the end of his journey. This long and winding path had led him in: a circle.

Here he was at the foot of the master emerald alter on angel is land. He had the emerald in his right hand and a key in his left. Now he had to find a lock. He brushed the island and the base of the alter, and when he couldn't find any thing he combed it, and when that failed he searched frantically. Maybe it wasn't here. Maybe it was elsewhere. But why would the key have a picture of here? Or maybe it was here, it was just removed at one point or another. Either way, he couldn't find it and therefore, didn't know what to do next.

He eventually decided that he should put the Master Emerald back on the shrine, after all, he didn't know how much long it's disconnected energy could keep angel island floating.

He ascended the stairs until he reached the spot where the Master Emerald was to rest when he saw it: a small hole on the floor roughly large enough to slip a key.

Knuckles put the Emerald down and inserted the old rusty key. After a lot of force, the key turned and a stone handle emerged from the ground.

"now we're getting somewhere" He said to himself.

Knuckles grabbed the handle and pulled on it, opening a door similar to the way a cellar door would open.

Inside was a small room with a stone bed and well preserved carvings on the wall. It took only moments for Knuckles to realize that this was a tomb. He moved forward to read the carvings on the wall.

The largest one read "Here lies the last resting place of Icobodcrane the Echidna"

Knuckles then moved down to the smaller carvings.

"this is the last testament of Icobodcrane Echidna. If you are reading this, it is because you desire to know why my family was cursed to guard the Master Emerald for eternity. The simple truth is it's my fault. It was many years ago when my beloved Lilly was dying. I being a member of my tribe with the Master Emerald, brought her weak body to the Emerald and begged it to heal her. It said it would, and it did. It then told me that I would live a long and happy life with her.

But a short two years later, she died shortly after child birth. In my anger, I struck at the master Emerald and as punishment, it cursed me and my children and so on to a life of servitude to it. That is why I hate it, and why you should hate it"

Knuckles read it over and over again trying to make sense of it all. That was why he was here? It all seemed so... Empty.

Metal Sonic paced back and fourth, listening to Black Ray's story. Of course, do to a lot of damage to his left leg, he strode with a limp, slowing him greatly. With each detail Black Ray spoke, Metal Sonic remained expressionless. Granted, he was a robot, but even his eyes remained in their usual dimly lit shape. Which made it difficult for Black Ray to determine exactly what he was thinking. Once his story was finished, Metal Sonic put a cold hand on Black Ray's shoulder.

"You have done well" He said "Now as for this Blood Ray-"

"Did you perfect him too?" Black Ray asked.

"In a way" Metal replied "He was a much earlier project back when I was working with Ivo" Metal Sonic began pacing again, and one eye went slightly bigger. "curious really" he pondered.

"what's curious?" Black Ray asked.

"well, given the nature of recent events, I wonder if he is aware of our contact"

Black Ray shook his head. "impossible"

Metal Sonic nodded. "your first mission was success, now I wish to put it to rest and give you another"

"what is it?"

"I need you to get me every last bit of information you can on Blood Ray" Metal Sonic said "every power, every move, every word. Understand?"

Black Ray smiled "shouldn't be a problem"

"you have done well Black Ray." Metal said "Soon, there will be no more need for secrecy"

With that, Black Ray left. Metal Sonic went to his chair and sat. Things were getting much more complicated and dangerous. Why would Eggman bring Blood Ray into the equation? Was Black Ray not enough for what the doctor had planned?

And on top of that, Blood Ray was making a risky move with this bounty hunter called X-Fire. And the order in of it's self was strange. Why only target one? Obviously he didn't know what he was getting into with Sonic and his friends.

Tails worked on the main computer of Eggman's Holoska base. Obviously it was a backup and therefore empty.

"Do you have any thing?" Cream asked

Tails smiled "I got a lot of information. I need to get this to Sonic as soon as possible"

Cream returned the smile "Good!"

"hey Cream, thank you for taking over earlier"

"You're welcome" She said before walking to keep lookout.

Finally, he transferred the information to his disk and shut down the computer.

Now back to the meeting location Tails thought heading for the door.

*Creek*

Tails turned around toward the closet in the back of the room. What was that? Tails slowly made his way to the closet.

Holding up a laser, he hit a switch, opening the door.

But before he could react, a large bang filled the base.

Miles Prower fell backwards, blood falling from a wound in his forehead.

From the closet stepped Blood Ray's bounty hunter, gun still smoking.

**Yes people. I am perfectly willing to pick off characters one by one. By the way, I came up with X-Fire when I was ten and I couldn't think of anything better. See you soon.**


	14. Chapter Thirteen

**I'm done with this "once a week" thing. I'm just too busy. But Christmas being over, I will present you with:**

Knuckles walked through the field outside of Eggman's "hidden" base. He had seen the Tornado a few minutes ago, now he was searching for Tails. To this point, Knuckles knew nothing of Sonic's fight with Black Ray, and now, with his own little quest over, he was ready to help Sonic.

His whole trip, all he could think about were the results of said little quest. At first he didn't know what to think. Them it came that his great-great-great-great-great grandfather deserved it. Then with that came the thought of: "Knuckles didn't deserve it", which irritated him. Then came the thought that his children definitely don't deserve it, which angered him to no end.

Once he had a wife, was he sure he even wanted to have children? To pass this, curse, yes that's what it was, to them? To clear his head, Knuckles took the master Emerald and went to assist Sonic.

"HELP!" screamed a voice. Knuckles looked around for the source. He could have sworn it sounded exactly like-

Cream came from around the building carrying something. Knuckles ran over there to see what she was so upset about. When he approached her, he learned the something was actually a someone. Tails was lying unconscious with a small bloody wound on his forehead.

"What happened?" Knuckles asked concerned.  
"Tails was shot" Cream sobbed "He may be dead!"  
Knuckles got Tails to the ground and checked for breathing and found he was not. Another quick examination showed that he had no pulse either.

"How long ago was he shot?" Knuckles asked.  
Cream shook her head "I don't know. A few minutes, I think.  
Knuckles brightened up slightly. If he had been dead less than twenty minutes there was still a chance.

Knuckles pulled out the Master Emerald and held it over Tails, trying to remember the call.  
"The servers are the seven Chaos, Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart. The master serves to unify the Chaos. Please, I need you to revive Tails" Knuckles said, forgetting his new feelings for it.

The Master Emerald began glowing and then, Tails started breathing. but the breaths were short and there wasn't enough oxygen getting to his body. Knuckles picked Tails off the ground.  
"We need to hurry to Holoska, they have a small hospital there and the Master Emerald is only serving as a life support." Cream nodded and the two began running.

After about forty minutes, they arrived in the Holskan village where Tails was taken to a hospital. Of course, hospital was a vast overstatement. This was a small hut with a doctor, a nurse and nowhere near the equipment they needed to help Tails.

Finally, the doctor said they had a helicopter that would take him to the Capital city just an hour south. He said it was the closest medical facility that had what they needed for Tails' condition. So Knuckles, Cream and the doctor got on the helicopter with Tails and began flying down the mountain. The doctor was trying to wake Tails up to figure out the extent of the brain damage.

**Else Where **

Sonic ran toward Capital City as fast as his legs would take him. Amy was laying in his arms, trying desperately not to throw up.  
They had been running for only about three minutes, bit to Amy it felt like hours. She had run with Sonic many a times, but this was much, much faster.

Meanwhile Sonic hadn't given Amy a thought, as he was hoping every one else would be there by the time he was. He spent an hour searching Eggman's computer database. This was simply because he didn't have a clue where or how to search. After leaving, Cream caught up with every one and gave them a chip for encrypting passwords. According to Tails, Shadow had turned it down, stating he had Omega to do the job much faster. Frankly, Sonic was sick of Tails getting treated that way by Shadow.

After he figured out just how to use said chip, he spent a while searching for important information. Then finally, he found it. He learned that after the mission in space, Eggman had gotten a second perfected clone (or that was the best Sonic could tell). He also learned that both Black Ray and Blood Ray were on their way to Capital City. He learned this do to Eggman's need to track his clones. Good thing too.

After another minute of running, he was back in the capital city.  
"Okay, national bank" He muttered.  
"Hurry!" Amy yelled  
"what do you think I'm doing?" Sonic asked.

In a few seconds he found it and slid to a stop. Sonic then slowly stood Amy up, who collapsed, regaining her concentration.  
Sonic frantically searched the area. Where was everyone? Finally, or finally for Sonic, Shadow came to a halt in front of them along with Rouge and Omega.

"There you are!" Sonic said  
Shadow crossed his arms. "it may have taken longer than expected, but we-"  
"no time" Sonic interrupted. "Black Ray is in this city and we need to find him now!" With that Sonic ran off.

Shadow glanced at Amy and then turned to his team mates.  
"Get her up and follow" Shadow said realizing that any help they could get would be needed. And then, he ran in the direction of Sonic.

Black Ray and Blood Ray ran together through Capital City. Blood Ray said he had an assignment for Black Ray, but had not disclosed just what. He assumed it had something to do with his numerous hesitations when it came to murdering Sonic the Hedgehog.

Finally they stopped at an intersection. Blood Ray spotted a couple getting in an old vehicle and smiled. The situation was turning, as always, in his favor.

"Chaos Control" Blood Ray said, waving a hand. At that moment, the car overturned, pinning the man's leg under the tire and the woman's lower body by the rod over the window. Blood Ray spread an evil grin. Black Ray raised an eye brow, wondering just what they were doing.

"Nice car" Blood Ray said to the couple. "I love those Bavarians. So meticulous." Blood Ray began moving around the vehicle. "Who are you?" the man asked, terror leaking through his voice. Black Ray followed, beginning to wonder the same thing.

Blood Ray looked around to see people either staring or just ignoring the situation altogether. Blood Ray scoffed "you know, I remember when things were a lot more fun around here. When good was good, and evil was evil. Before things got so fuzzy"

Black Ray was now completely confused. He had been here before? Having enough of the suspense, he stepped forward. "What do you mean use to be?" Black Ray asked.

Blood Ray smiled and placed a hand on Black Ray's shoulder. "I was once a golden boy like you. Until I realized black and white was just a children's tale. It's just Black and a slightly brighter black" Blood Ray guided Black Ray to the side of the trapped people who were now scared beyond words.

Blood Ray gestured down "Kill them"

Black Ray looked to the two humans on the ground, and raised a chaos emerald. "Chaos-" he started, but he couldn't do it. Black Ray's eyes changed from pink to white. The people were helpless. How could Black Ray, or any one, justify killing them. They weren't a problem like Sonic was. Sonic was a danger- both Metal Sonic and Robotnic said so. But these people, if they were guilty of some unknown crime, had no way to defend themselves. He couldn't do it. To kill them would be-

"I can't" Black Ray said  
"can't?" Blood Ray asked.  
Black Ray shook his head "It's just wrong. It feels wrong"

Blood Ray gave Black Ray a sly smile and put his arm around his shoulder. "Black Ray, gentlemen" Blood Ray said to the man before looking to the woman. "And I use that word loosely" Blood Ray returned his vision to Black Ray.

"I WILL testify for you."  
"You?" Black Ray asked  
"I am an expert witness"  
Before Black Ray could ask why, Blood Ray continued. "Because I say I am. I'm a saint, and a liar. Because there are not facts, no truth, just data to be manipulated. I can get you any results you like! What's it worth to you? Because there is no wrong, there is no right, and I sleep very well at night. No shame, no solution, no remorse, no retribution. Just people selling T-shirts! Just opportunities to participate in this pathetic little circus. And winning, winning, winning!" he finished.

Black Ray looked from Blood Ray to his two victims, the red returning to his eyes. It was just two people in the grand scheme of things. And after all, there was no wrong.  
Black Ray lifted the Chaos Emerald above the woman and prepared a blast that was sure to kill.

"Chaos-"

But this time he didn't stop. This time he was sure to get his attack from point A to point B. And two humans would be dead.

But before he could finish he was interrupted. A blue blur past by blowing both hedgehogs away from the car, and then two precise pounds knocked them to the ground. And then, between them both, stood Sonic the Hedgehog.

"hey, this isn't looking too good" Sonic said "what do you think?"  
Shadow came to a stop beside him. "no Sonic, not good at all"  
Blood Ray got to his feet and smiled. "I've heard of you, Sonic the hedgehog. You are the one my brother can't seem to kill"

Shadow looked between Black Ray and Blood Ray. He couldn't believe it, two of them! Though, he had this large suspicion Sonic already knew.

"Chaos Spear!" Black Ray and Blood Ray said at the same time. a huge group of spears shot at Sonic and Shadow from both directions.  
Sonic dodged them all with his speed, but Shadow was injured.

At that moment, Amy, Rouge and Omega came to help Sonic and Shadow.  
But Black Ray and Blood Ray were ready.  
"Chaos Blast" They both said. A large field of chaos energy expanded, to big for any of the to avoid.

Once Sonic, Shadow, Omega, Rouge and Amy were on the ground, Black Ray and Blood Ray sent out another wave of spears, immobilizing all of them.  
Blood Ray gestured for Black Ray to stop. "Allow me to finish this"  
Blood Ray waved his arm and a large gash appeared in Sonic's chest.

Blood Ray did it again, but the gashes never got any deeper than about a quarter of a centimeter. Blood Ray scowled.  
Why wouldn't it work properly?  
Blood Ray did it again and again but to no avail.

Finally, Sonic jumped up and held out his Chaos Emerald.

"Chaos-"  
Blood Ray lunged forward and grabbed the Emerald with Black Ray just behind him.  
"-Control!" Sonic finished.

Exerting all his energy, Sonic froze the two.

But Blood Ray already had his hand on the emerald.

After sending a telepathic message to Black Ray, the two teleported out of their and, seeing as they were both using Chaos Control, took Sonic's emerald with them.

Exhausted, Sonic collapsed on the ground.

**There you are. I won't promise anything else, but I'm going to try to post the last nine chapters by April, which will be exactly a year after I posted the first chapter of this rewrite.**

**See ya later.**


	15. Chapter Fourteen

**Hello all. Just a few days after the last installment, I am back. I hope Tails getting shot offered a bit of suspense. I still don't know if he'll live or die, but I guess I'll figure that one out later this week! But anyway, you guys came here for:**

**Chapter Fourteen**

Sonic's eyes shot open to see Shadow standing over.  
"Sonic, get up!" He said.  
Sonic rubbed his head and slowly got to his feet.

"What happened?" Sonic asked  
"You didn't practice Chaos Control, so you were unable to handle it"  
Sonic frowned  
"So I-"  
Shadow nodded "You need to practice Chaos Control before we meet Black Ray and his friend  
again"

Sonic smiled "Okay then, shouldn't be a problem"

Shadow rolled his eyes, but let his frustration go.  
"So what did you learn?" Amy asked Rouge.  
"Glad you asked" Rouge said "We broke into his computer and found that Black Ray is made from  
a DNA algorithm like Shadow is, which was expected."

Omega stepped forward. "There was also a second algarythm code. My sensors indicate that there is  
an 89.-  
724675794277 on percent chance that it is another living being."  
Shadow crossed his arms "Black Arm energy was also present in the Doctor's scan"

Sonic smiled, pretending to understand what any of it meant. "Well great" He said "Let's get this to  
Tails"  
Shadow nodded "Agreed" He said. He was never fooled for a second that Cream was in control of  
this operation.

"Wait a second" Rouge said "What did you learn?"  
Amy put her hands on her hips. "I don't know" She said "Sonic just grabbed me and ran"  
Sonic shrugged "Sorry" He apologized before turning to Rouge, making it obvious he was talking  
to her and not to Shadow.  
"We learned what you just learned" He said "Black Ray has a partner and he was coming here"  
Sonic raised his thumb "And I think I just spoiled what they had planned"

Shadow rolled his eyes, watching the paramedics taking away the mildly injured couple.  
Sonic turned to Shadow with a smile. "You better be careful doing that Shadow, You're eyes might  
get stuck up there"  
Shadow chose to ignore this. "Now where's Tails?" Amy asked

"let's hope nothing bad happened" Rouge joked.  
"I still think it was foolish of him to try another mission considering the results of the last one" Shadow said

Before Sonic could react, a chopper flew over the two toward the hospital.

But what got Sonic's attention was Knuckles holding on to the side with Cream holding on to him.  
sobbing. But if they were there, where was-

Tails!" Sonic screamed before running after it.

Shadow looked up, a singe of guilt burning in his head. Even Rouge was beginning to wish she  
hadn't joked about something bad happening.

**Else Where**

In another part of Capital City, the captain of the CCPD homicide division was looking over one of  
the worst murder scenes he had ever seen.  
Two sibling, squirrels from Mobius, were killed in a back ally.

The official report told a violent story.  
The two were taking a short cut down this ally when they were jumped. The brother tried to hold off  
the killer while the sister ran.

The killer obviously made short work of him before chasing the sister down the aly and killing her.  
The truly terrifying part was that there was no blood left in either body. And on top of that, the killer  
only left one wound on each victim.

The Captain found himself thoroughly stumped.

**Else Where**

Sonic ran to the helicopter as it landed. Knuckles jumped down beside him and put the crying  
Cream down who ran over and hugged Sonic.

"Oh Mister Sonic" She said "It's Tails, he was shot"  
Sonic returned the hug "Shot?"  
Knuckles nodded.

"We don't know who, but it's pretty bad. it's only thanks to the master Emerald that he is still alive"  
"It's a good thing you were there Knuckles" Sonic said gratefully.  
"It was certainly lucky" Knuckles said "They're trying to revive him now"

At that, The doctors rolled Tails off and towards the hospital. Shadow, Amy, Rouge and Omega  
followed them.  
"He's up, but just barely" The Doctor said.

Sonic looked down at Tails. He had dozens of tubes going in and out of him that looked like they  
were placed in a hurry. Most of them to his head and neck. He also had a bandage over the top of  
his head that was soaked with blood.

"He wants a Sonic" The Doctor said  
"That's me!" Sonic yelled, Running to Tails' side as they got closer to the hospital's back doors.

"What is it buddy?"  
"Amy too, Amy too" Tails mumbled with barely opened eyes.

"Amy!" Sonic called.  
Amy ran to Tails' other side and leaned down "I'm here Tails" Amy said with tears in her eyes.  
"I need you to go back and get my disc. it has an answer" He said.  
He then looked at Amy. "I dropped a ring" Tails said "And I might not make it through this"  
Tears began rolling down Sonic's face "Don't say that buddy, It's all going to be fine. you'll see!"

Tails shook his head, but with all the tubes it was more of a vibration.  
"Go on. and Amy, remeber what we talked about."  
Amy nodded. She knew what he meant.  
"Sonic" Tails said, a small smile forming "I'm going to see her again"

With that Tails passed out again and was rushed into an operating room where no one could  
follow.  
They all stood outside the hospital. Shadow, Rouge and Omega were standing back With Amy and  
Cream crying and Knuckles standing still in disbelief.

Sonic was on his knees, not sure what to think. his best option was to get it off his mind.  
He stood up and grabbed Amy's hand.  
"Come on Amy, Tails gave us a mission and we need to hurry"  
Sonic picked her up and he began running at top speed again. Amy didn't care. She was already  
sick thinking about Tails.

**Else Where**

Black Ray stood, preparing for Blood Ray's strike.  
They had been at it for hours, but neither of them had any thing better to do. And on top of that,  
They were both determined not to be championed by Sonic.

Their training consisted of one directing the Chaos Emeralds at the other, and preforming the same  
maneuver that Sonic had used against them. The "victim" would continue to try to resist and break  
free.

So far, Blood Ray had been the best, though Black Ray could still pull out after a couple struggling  
minutes.

"Chaos Control" Blood Ray said, taking control of the energy in Black Ray's body, manipulating  
his movements. But this time, Black Ray couldn't fight it. No matter how hard he tried, Blood Ray  
was going at it much harder this time.

"Blood Ray" Black Ray tried to say, but nothing came out. Black Ray's Blood Shot eyes cleared to  
White.  
Blood Ray smiled. "We can't have that. let's have a little fun"  
Blood Ray swung Black Ray back at fourth, scraping him into the nearest wall or object.

After minutes of Black Ray's helpless attempts to break free. His vision of Robotnic's base shifted  
until he saw nothing but white. Then a pink silhouette in the distant.  
"Come here Black Ray" She said "I need you"  
With that she began skipping away.

"Wait!" Black Ray said, running after her through a field of white.

Then it all changed again. now he was standing on a rocky floor surrounded by walls that were a  
strange spongy material.

Then two more dark figures appeared. one was on the ground while the other was floating with no  
apparent legs, holding a knife up, ready to stab the one on the floor.

"Don't do it please. I meant nothing wrong! Black Ray, and the others can help us, help you! please"  
But the one with the knife would not listen to his pleading. The tall one dropped the knife into the\  
other.

"Black Ray, come here I need you Black Ray"

Then he was back on Robotnic's base.

His eyes change to a bright Red like the ones he was staring into.  
Gathering his Chaos energy, he released himself from Blood Ray's grip and blasted him into the  
wall.

Blood Ray looked up with a single drop of blood falling from his lip.  
"Your turn"

**Oh, mystery! Dun, dun, dun! By the way, I changed my mind: no free food.**

**Writers note 1/3/12: I have gone through and updated it, fixing the errors. It's no work of art, but there are no more terrible spelling and grammar problemos.**


	16. Chapter Fifteen

**Here I am, just hours after I posted the last chapter. **

**Chapter Fifteen**

Sonic ran up the mountain with Amy draped in his arms.

He was in a rush to complete his best friend's mission and get back by the time he was out of  
surgery. Sonic couldn't bear the thought of anything happening to Tails.  
Over the years, Tails had always been there with Sonic on almost every adventure. Often times,  
Tails was the reason any adventure turned out well,

Now Sonic had to face the very real possibility that Tails might die.  
Just looking into Tail's glazed eyes and the fox unable to stand was a devastating sight.  
One thing Sonic couldn't get off his mind was Tails' last words to him before he was rushed off.

"Sonic, I'm going to see her again"

That thought brought so much happiness to Tails' face and Sonic could almost find comfort in the  
thought that if Tails were to die, he spent his last moments happy.

But Tails was not going to die. He couldn't die! He would be strong and join Sonic in the end of  
this adventure. he would see!  
But, Tails words... Is it possible that Tails wanted to die? He hadn't been the same since the Cosmo  
incident and now, now he could be with her. The one that, every one was sure, he loved.  
But no, he had said that to comfort himself. Tails could always see the bright side, even of dying.

But again, since she died.

No, no, no! Sonic shook these thought away. tails would be as happy as anyone if he were to  
survive this. He was already half way there, All thanks to Knuckles and the master Emerald.  
But mostly the Master Emerald.

Amy was thinking of Tails as well, so much so that she didn't care about the speed, or that Sonic  
was carrying her.  
For the better part of a year, She had been having secret psychological secessions with Tails. He  
was the one that had given her the advice to buy the ranch. She had grown a deep love and respect  
for Tails.

When they started the secessions, Tails had congratulated her on admitting that she had issues that  
needed to be addressed. She knew deep down that her love for Sonic exceeded by far a normal  
attraction, she just never admitted it.  
She felt comfortable talking to Tails. And Tails had offered her a place to open up.  
Now it looked to her like she would be loosing that. Not only that, but also a good friend. A friend she had known almost as long as she had known Sonic.

Tails words had inspired her in ways that they never had before. She felt, for him, like it was  
finally time to let Sonic go.

Finally, the two reached the top of the mountain. That was when a thought came to the pair. Where  
was the base Tails was searching when the catastrophe occurred? He never had a chance to tell  
them, nor did they think to ask. They were both pretty shook up.

In the end it didn't matter. Sonic was fast enough to search the mountain in a hurry, and the snow  
wasn't too bad.

In all of Sonic's worry, there was one thought that hadn't come up yet. But now, after many minutes  
of drifting back from Tail's welfare, to how Sonic would go on without Tails. Either way, he knew  
either way he would find a way to get by.  
But now, in his crisis, much darker thought squeezed their way through the crevice in his mind  
The one who owned the finger, which pulled the trigger, which hit Tails.

And what would Sonic do about him? A burning desire to hit that assailant built in Sonic. And hit  
him again, and again. Eventually, maybe Sonic would roll up into a ball and pound into the man.  
And then bounce up and pound again. With each impact, hearing the satisfying crunch of bones  
breaking.

But right now, as far as Sonic knew, everything was alright. Tails was breathing, just barely though, and he would end up fine.  
At least for now.  
Sonic found himself, yet again, shaking such thoughts away.

He found himself astounded at just how fast his mind changed. first he was dealing with the TWO perfected Shadow clones, and then his mind snapped into distress mode when he saw the helicopter carrying Tails.

But now that he thought about it, he forced himself to stay on that subject. Otherwise he would dwell on Tails until he could no longer focus on anything else.

Black Ray he could spot in a crowd any day of the week and twice on Sunday, But his new companion, he was a real sight. easily the most terrifying Hedgehog Sonic had the misfortune to set his eyes on.

He looked-  
Sonic's eyes snapped wide with realization.

_Black Ray walked unnaturally slow toward Sonic, but he no longer was black with blue stripes. He was now a blood red Hedgehog with maroon stripes running the course of his body. His shoes and gloves had changed from their comical look, to gun metal coverings. He held out a hand and shot a stream of liquid-like black energy. it circled the court room before finally stopping at Sonic and striking him in the chest._

He was the hedgehog from the dreams! The one that Black Ray always morphed into. The one he preyed he would never face. But now he had.  
Sonic didn't know why he hadn't seen it before when they were fighting. He supposed he was wrapped up in not losing. and he didn't, thanks to the Chaos Emerald.

The Chaos Emerald that Black Ray took. which meant Sonic was back to zero and Black Ray had five. Sonic hoped that he could find them before Black Ray and his new partner.  
Luckily, those thoughts took his mind off Tails, but only briefly. All his thoughts of Tails came rushing back when he saw the Tornado landed next to a large shed looking building.  
"This must be the place!" Amy yelled over the blowing wind.

Sonic put Amy down and they worked their way into Eggman's base. Which was easy enough seeing as in Cream's rush out, she left the door wide open. Sonic and Amy walked through the now snow covered entrance hall and headed toward what was hopefully the control room.

Luckily, this was one of Eggman's back up bases that he only used if he were for some reason in the region. His main base was hidden elsewhere and no one had been able to find it. Sonic had suspicians. but decided it would be more fun to wait till Eggman struck and have a bit of fun. He was beggining to regret that decision.

"This is the computer room" Amy said, looking around for where ever Tails was shot. This sight became obvious when they notice a bit of freezing blood in a small puddle by the storage closet which was empty, save for a few spare parts.

Sonic cringed at the sight. It was obvious what had happened. Tails had gone to inspect the closet for unknown reasons and his attacker was waiting in there. When the electronic door opened, The attacker fired one shot from a gun. the shell was sitting across the room, rolling over there after the shot was fired.

Tears began to form under Amy's eyes at the though of poor unsuspecting Tails opening to door to his doom. But he would be alright. he had to be!  
"This is it" Sonic said somberly, pointing to a small plastic disc on the floor, not far from where he was shot. "Let's hurry back"  
Amy shook her head "We have to find some ring first"  
"Right"

The two searched for a few minutes. Sonic loked behind the computer moduel, ready to give up, when Amy gasped.  
"What is it?" Sonic asked concerned.  
Amy held out the small engagement ring.

"Amy this isn't the time-"  
Sonic started before Amy gave him a slap. "Shut up Sonic! It's Tails'"  
Sonic stopped for a moment, before he realized what that ring meant.

"So he? Why? Who?" He asked.  
"Who do you think Sonic it's Co-" She started but was unable to finish.

A few moments of silence fallowed.

"He really loved her" Sonic said  
Amy nodded, tears coming down her face. She felt terrible for Tails. And a part of her felt sad because Tails loved Cosmo in a way Sonic couldn't love Amy. It was something that took her back.

"I thought it was a little atraction" Amy admitted.  
"He had only known her a few months though" Sonic said  
"Sometimes that's all it takes"  
Sonic took the ring and just stared at it.

"Let's go back" Sonic said "He has to be alright!"  
Sonic picked up Amy again and ran down toward the city.

**Else Where**

A man stormed into a room with three other men. One was sitting at a desk while two others in suits were standing around, raising their hand guns at the intruder's aproach.

The man at the desk gestured for them to lower there weapons. "Close the door" He said and one of the men in suits closed the door leading to the citry streets.

"She's still alive!" The angry man said. The man in the desk looked up and frowned.  
"What happened was a mistake. the mistake has been taken care of. I will try again tonight"  
The angry Man sat down and took a glass of vodka offered by the man in the desk.  
"I don't care what happened, I want my wife dead"

The man in the desk smiled "You and your mistress will be together soon"  
Meanwhile, The creature was staring into the room through the window. I t had enjoyed the feast the squirrels had provided, but these humans had much more blood coursing through their veins to feed on. True, there was no real hunt involved, but it was hungry.

It burst through the window, and despite the bullets being shot at it, began it's meal, all the while calling to it's master,

and now the enemy of it's master: The one with the neon ring.

**As you can see, there wasn't any action here and there probably won't be much in the next chapter. But that only means I can go a little bit into characters.**


	17. Chapter Sixteen

**Hey, look at this. FOUR chapters in the SAME WEEK with a whole lot of ALL CAPS! Any way, if I keep this up, it'll make up for all those times I said I would do it once a week, but chapters weren't coming for a few weeks and bla, bla, bla. Anyway, here is:**

**Chapter Sixteen**

Blood Ray closed his eyes for a moment, hearing it's call. He also looked to his left to see Black Ray play with the ring on his wrist. He smiled at this. His servant was doing well.  
"Go on please" X-fire said, pulling Blood Ray from his thoughts.

"Sonic will no doubt be driven by rage by your taking of his friends life. His mind has become a bomb, and no one knows when it will go off. I want you to, pull the switch, for lack of a better term."  
"How do I do this?"  
"A trap. Sonic will soon learn that a Chaos Emerald resides in a near by bank. You will wait for them, and pretend to steal it. If everything precedes as I have foreseen, then he will recognize you"

X-fire nodded and left the room, followed by Blood Ray with a broad grin on his face.  
Black Ray watched them leave, lost in thought. He wasn't sure at this point if he could trust Blood Ray. He seemed completely, through and through, evil. As a matter of fact, he seemed beyond evil. Just in his look.

But a lot more was going through Black Ray's mind. like the vision he had just had. He didn't know any of what was happening, or who needed him.  
On top of all that, he also had two conflicting stories regarding his own creation.

Doctor Robotnik said he created and perfected him whilst Metal Sonic said that Robotnik created Black Ray while Metal perfected him. Black Ray was leaning with Metal's story. it seemed more believable. But then what about Blood Ray? He said he was another project of the Doctor's and his. Black Ray just didn't know what to believe.

On top of that (A lot of stacking here), Blood Ray had begun to upstage him. He seemed to have taken control of every thing and had more schemes and plots then the Doctor himself. And then there was the ring. He hadn't a clue what it was for, but just now it felt as if it was calling him somewhere. He could ignore it for now, but what if it persisted?

Black Ray found the mysteries just too much to handle. But he could manage for now.

**Else Where**

Sonic walked into Tails' Hospital room slowly. Amy had gone to retrieve the doctor to see if they could find out what happened. Sonic had a hard time going to see Tails in this state, so Cream had held his hand. When she had, Sonic found strength in the support from her and faced this challenge like he had so many others.

When he walked in the room, Tails was up staring at the ceiling with tears in his eyes. Knuckles sat by the door and looked at Sonic with an unreadable expression. Sonic was glad Tails was alive after surgery, especially one on the brain, but he looked awful. More tubes were going in and out of Tails then when Sonic left. and he didn't know why he looked so depressed.

Sonic walked next to Tails and put his hand down.  
"Hey budy. doing alright?"  
Tails shook his head  
"I know" Sonic said.  
Tails looked to Sonic and choked out "I killed her Sonic"

His voice sounded cold and raspy. like he was talking to a ghost. perhaps he was, for how little of himself Tails still had. He was obviously different and Sonic knew that was no doubt due to the operation.

Amy then stepped into the room with a human doctor who looked exhausted. Sonic felt a bit nervous.  
"Mister The Hedgehog" The Doctor said. "I would like to discuss mister Prower with you, seeing as you are the closest thing to a family for him from what I hear"  
"Alright" Sonic said, forcing a smile. he gestured for the others to follow. The doctor didn't object.

"We'll be right back Tails" Amy said. He showed no signs of hearing. Then, Sonic, Amy, Knuckles and Cream followed into the doctor's office. It was a comical sight really.  
When they were all seated, the doctor took a sip of his cold coffee and began.

"The surgery went well and that is because of what ever you did" The doctor said to Knuckles. "But What appears to be happening now is a mental breakdown"  
Amy cringed. The doctor continued. "It's hard to say if his behavior patterns will return"

"So, he'll never be the same old Tails?" Cream asked  
"Left on his own, there is no chance that he'll be the same, no"  
"Aren't there drugs for that kind of thing?" Amy asked.  
"Yes there are, but they won't work. I have a colleague who specializes in patients with the same post surgical trauma."

Sonic looked down in thought.

"There is something we can do that may help"

every one looked up. "My colleague has tried a mix of drugs deposited into the nervous system by IV that has worked 7 out of ten times without complication."  
"How many times has it been done?" Knuckles asked  
"Ten"

It was a tough decision to make, but they all eventually decided that it was the best thing.

So they all returned to the room to get Tails' permission when the doctor stepped in, he was hit in the neck with an IV needle and the door was slammed and locked by Tails, who had gotten out of bed and abandoned his numerous medications that he needed.

"Tails!" Knuckles yelled "Open this door now!"  
"NO!" Tails weak voice shouted. "Stay out for your own good!"  
Knuckles punched down the door, resulting in Tails hitting him with an IV stand and knocking him back.

"That's it!" Sonic said as he stepped in the room. Tails hit him with the stand, but was too weak and fell backwards and passed out.  
The doctor then stepped in again. "Get him on the bed!"  
Sonic and Knuckles did as ordered and the doctor returned the IVs to his body.

"Some of these he needs to live" the Doctor said  
"What's wrong with him?" Knuckles asked, still angry with Tails, but understanding something was wrong.  
"Something" the Doctor said "My colleague warned me of something like this happening. he said that there was a small chance the breakdown would result in the patient becoming dangerous. We best give him the treatment now"  
The Doctor left the room and walked past Shadow and Rouge who were standing in the door way.  
Sonic looked at Shadow and knew he wanted to say something, but respected that he didn't.

"where were you?" Sonic asked  
"We went for information" Shadow replied, gesturing Rouge forward.

Rouge walked to Sonic and held out a small handheld device. "We broke into Eggman's security system and found footage of Tails' attacker"

The building desire to cause pain to this person began boiling up again. Sonic took the monitor, wanting to see his target. It was a picture of the assailant leaving the scene with Tails' body on the ground. He wore a helmet and armor. Sonic hit a button bringing up the next slide which was a wanted warning issued by the GUN. He was actually a she by the name of Marine Wood or X-fire, and she was a trained agent before defecting..

"This could be fun" Sonic said, tossing the monitor back to Rouge who caught it without even looking.  
"Is it wise to go after her?" Shadow asked "It seems irrational"  
Sonic smiled and winked "You don't know me at all, do you?"  
Shadow crossed his arms.

"I agree with Shadow" Amy said "It could be dangerous"  
Knuckles smirked "I think Sonic and I are more then capable"  
Sonic looked at him "and I?"  
Knuckles nodded "It's been too long since I saw some action"  
"Well alright" Sonic said with a thumbs up "Let's-"

They were interrupted by a nurse entering with an IV. She was a female fox about Tails' height and  
Rouge seemed to be caught be surprise by her arrival.  
"Leah" Rouge said sounding amazed to see her  
"Rouge" Leah replied flatly

Every one but Shadow seemed to be taken aback by their familiarity.  
"How've you been?" Leah asked the bat as she moved over to hook Tails up to yet another IV.  
"Better then you" Rouge said "Then maybe not"  
Leah smirked at her "Well, I seemed to have made it here despite your warnings" Leah said  
"You shouldn't have" Rouge said  
"I knew what favors to pull" Leah said  
"You always did"  
"I leaned from the best" With her job done Leah left the room as Rouge stared her down.

"Who was that?" Sonic asked  
"And how do you know her?" Amy followed up

Shadow crossed his arms and listened, already knowing the story.

"We worked together at the GUN. She was my apprentice in a way. but a few years back there was a rival country that smuggled missiles into this country and they planned to hit capital City. any way, I stopped the attack and then evidence came up and we were all pretty sure Leah was involved. Any way, it was never confirmed so we couldn't arrest her, but we were sure enough to fire her. And when you're fired from a government agency like GUN, they knock your ass so far back, your children will be nobodies. But Leah seemed to have bypassed all that"

Rouge looked down the hall. "I don't trust her"  
Knuckles rolled his eyes "Look who's talking"  
Rouge ignored that statement.  
"Should we check Tails' meds for poison?" Sonic asked  
Rouge shook her head "She's too good for that. If it's poisoned, it would be undetectable"

Amy looked to Shadow for some form of reassessment. He nodded. "If Rouge doesn't trust her, then I don't trust her"  
Sonic looked over at Tails. Maybe Leah did just pull some favors. After all, Why would she want to hurt Tails?

"Well, Sonic" Rouge said "Our very own bounty hunter has been spotted in the city. She's heading for the bank. She's after the Chaos Emerald"  
Sonic and Knuckles ran off. Shadow contemplated for a few seconds before following.

**As you can see, I just used Tails' being shot to: one, add some excitement, and two; establish his relationship with Sonic and Amy. Any way, hope you enjoyed. Chapter 17 should be up next week. Infact, I'll bribe you all a bit: If I**** can get a review informing me of my story's strong and weak points, I'll post the next chapter as soon as I see the review if not the next day. **


	18. Chapter Seventeen

**Before I do anything, I would like to appologizze for the multiple errors in Chapter 14. I guess after I made the edits, it never saved, and then I published it. I'll have that fixed soon. Any way, I'm on a roll updateing this, so I'm keeping it up with:**

**Chapter Seventeen**

"Hey there" Leah said to a waking Tails.

Tails looked up and smiled at her. Over his recovery the past few days, people had been in and out, (none more than Sonic) but he found himself alone last night. Everyone was preparing for their big plans that Tails was sure he'd be ready for. However, Leah was always there with a smiling face to talk to and keep company.

"Good morning" Tails replied.  
"How are you feeling?" She asked  
"Better since you've been here" Tails replied, trying to be charming. Leah blushed  
"You are too kind Miles" She said, unhooking a few more unneeded Ivs.  
It was an over staffed hospital, So Leah had a minute to sit down and talk to Tails.

"So what are you planning?" Leah asked, knowing that his visiters had been discussing a plan of sorts.  
"Rouge asked me not to tell you" Tails said with a smile that plainly read he would indeed tell her.  
"She doesn't trust me" Leah said  
"I know. But I think you're innocent" Tails said  
"So she told you why" Leah said. Tails nodded "We'll like I said, I believe you"  
"Well, that means a lot Mr. Prower" Leah said those last two words with a tone that made Tails smile.

"We're ambushing our enemy at a dance" Tails said "I need a cover date so I'm asking if you want to come" Tails spat out quickly  
"Are you asking me out on a date?" Leah asked  
"Well no, I'm asking you on a cover date. You know, with your GUN experience and all"  
"Well, It sounds like a date to me" Leah went over and kissed Tails on the cheek "I'll be there"

She said that and then walked out of the room. Tails sat, contemplating how far their relationship had gone in a mere three days. Tails thought back to all the events leading to this

**Three Days Ago**

Sonic kicked down at X-Firer repeatedly, making her pay for what she did to Tails. She was far past helpless by now, but Sonic didn't care. She deserved to die. Sonic could imagine, in just a few moments, holding her head in his hands, and pounding it against the concrete, all the while picturing Tails' shot, helpless body stretched out and covered in tubes and other various medical instruments.

Then Sonic would pound the ground again, and again with her head, until finally he heard the crack of the skull, caving in. He would then be met with the succulent coppery smell of blood, and through it all, he wouldn't notice the oozing red liquid spreading on his gloves and shoes.

So lost was sonic in this thought, that he didn't remember Shadow standing there behind him. Finally, Shadow came from behind pulling Sonic back. "I know you Sonic the Hedgehog" Shadow said "If she dies it'll be on your conscious for the rest of your life. "

Sonic thought about his words for a few moments before nodding. He quickly went to unlock the door for the vault they were in (C) and GUN troops came in and captured X-Fire.

Knuckles came in holding a Chaos Emerald and frowned. "Great" He said "Missed the action"  
"It was quite a party" Sonic said with a smirk.  
Shadow rolled his eyes before shutting them and groaning in frustration. Sonic turned to him and raised an eye brow. "What's the matter"  
"This was a trap" Shadow said "Black Ray or his accomplice knew you would lose your control when you fought X-Fire. It was his greatest weapon. and it worked"  
"What?" Knuckles asked "How do you know it wasn't a coincidence?"

"It was too easy, how we got all of the information." Shadow turned on his wrist radio to a GUN frequency  
"The suspect has escaped custody" Came a voice "Repeat, the suspect has escaped. Heading down west-" Shadow turned his radio off.  
"Her escape plan" Shadow said, Sonic and Knuckles accepting the evidence.  
Sonic smirked. "In that case, let's set a trap of our own"

Sonic and Shadow promptly made their way to the mayor where they arranged a dance in honor of the Chaos Emerald in an attempt to draw Black Ray in (But they didn't tell the mayor that way). They then returned to the hospital to tell everybody that they would use that event to try to beat Black Ray, or at least learn more about him.

Within the next week every body was getting ready for a fight. And Tails was recovering quickly. He felt bad about what happened, but every body had forgiven him. He was sure he'd be ready for a fight. He had also grown closer to Leah, much to Rouge's disdain.

Leah one afternoon walked into Tails' room where Tails got up from his bead where he was no longer bound and stepped to Leah.

"You ready for tonight?" Tails asked .Leah smiled  
"Yes. what do you think of my attire" She said, spinning around in her scrubs.  
"UM..." Tails said raising an eye brow. Leah laughed  
"Silly, I have a dress that I should be able to fight in. I just hope it won't be a long fight"  
"Um.." Tails repeated as Leah repeated her laughter  
"Joking again" She pulled herself close to Tails and held her face within inches of his. "I need to show you that my years at the GUN were productive"

With that, she left the room and Tails sat back down on the hospital bed. He looked at the table where his ring was cleverly hidden behind the lamp. Tails held it in his gloved hand for a minute. Ever since meeting Leah, he had not been thinking about Cosmo. He decided that Cosmo would be happy to see him truly happy again.

With that bit of closure, he put the ring away for the firs time in years in his bag where other belongings from his home were kept.

Once the night came, They all prepared their cover dates: Sonic with Amy, Tails with Leah, Shadow with Cream, And Knuckles with Rouge. Omega would be on standby outside the building.

The cover dates, along with all the real dates, walked into the ball room linking arms.

Shadow left Cream almost immediately, asking her to scout the west side of the room while he scouted the right side. Sonic and Amy were sat down and Tails and Leah out on the dance floor. Knuckles and Rouge were bickering over who would get who drinks.

"They are a sight" Sonic said about Knuckles to Amy.  
Amy looked over at Tails and Leah. "They're the real sight"  
Sonic looked over at them dancing, staring into each others eyes.  
"But at least he's happy" Sonic said, glad to see Tails with another woman  
"I guess, but what about what Rouge said?"  
Sonic thought for a moment "I guess this disproves that" He said. Though, he'd still keep a close eye on her with his budy.

Meanwhile Rouge had finally gotten them drinks in order to shut Knuckles up. That way she had a chance to scoff at Tails and Leah. Knuckles lookeded. over and smiled.  
"It's really eating you up, isn't it?"  
"Well yeah. I don't trust her at all"  
Knuckles looked over at Tails "Are you in love with him?"  
Rouge laughed. both on the inside and outside. "He's too goody-two shoes for me Knuckie" She said "But I just don't want to see the kid hurt" In her mind she added _"He's had enough pain for a lifetime"_

Meanwhile, Tails was in a slow waltz with Leah.  
"You really are beautiful tonight" He said  
"You are too kind Miles"  
"Not kind enough for you" Tails said, trying again to be charming  
"Now, Now Miles, don't get mushy. I'd think you were trying to say something"

"Why don't me and you dance?" Amy whined to Sonic  
"We need to keep watch from here" Sonic said with a shrug  
"Awe"  
"A shame, really" Sonic said sarcastically. Amy pouted.

Meanwhile, Shadow kept watch from the corner, keeping his eye on the Chaos Emerald in the center of the room. Then he glanced at Tails and Leah. Shadow knew if Rouge didn't trust Leah, then Leah would be up to no good. He decided he too would keep a close eye on Tails.

Finally, expected all night long, Two hedgehogs walked into the ball room. One was tall with Black fur and blue spikes while the other was blood red and had an evil aroma about him. His spikes looked as if they were blowing in the wind. Both pairs of eyes were red and blood shot.

"I am Blood Ray and this is Black Ray. We ask every human to leave the premises" Blood Ray spoke in his monstrous yet somehow soothing voice. "You will all die in due time, but I have no desire to waist your blood"

At that, every human in the room ran for the exits and within a few seconds, The only ones standing in the room were split on two sides. One side was Blood Ray and Black Ray while on the other side was Sonic, Shadow, Rouge, Omega, Tails, Leah, Cream and Amy ready for the fight to come.

The lines were separated by the Chaos Emerald on a five foot pillar in the center of the room.

Each side looked into the eyes of the other, waiting for who would make the first move. But to Sonic, the only one who existed in the room was Black Ray while Shadow focused on Blood Ray.

After what felt like eternity, Blood Ray amd Black Ray vanished. Sonic and Shadow both knew where they would reappear and made a mad dash for the Chaos Emerald. Sonic reached in first as Black Ray and Blood Ray appeared.

Using his speed, Sonic grabbed the Emerald and threw himself over the heads of the two Rays and landed.

As this was happening, Black Ray and Blood Ray shot a spread of spears at Sonic but were stopped by Shadow grabbing Blood Ray's arm and twisting him around, redirecting the spears at two nearby tables and shattering the crystal glasses and eradicating the silver.

Mean while, Amy batted Black Ray to Rouge with her hammer, who tripped Black Ray, knocking him to the ground.  
Blood Ray smiled at Shadow. "Chaos Control" Blood Ray said. His body then lit on fire, catching Shadow on fire, resulting in Shadow letting go and rolling in order to put himself out. Blood Ray stood There with a grin, and still on fire. Watching Shadow who was no longer burning.

Before Shadow could get to his feet Blood Ray waved his hand. A bolt of Chaos Energy shot at Shadow, forming a long deep gash the immediately started bleeding. Blood Ray waved his hand again, but before it hit Shadow in what would be a fatal shot, Cream jumped in front of Shadow taking the shot instead.

Shadow looked down at the unconscious Cream who had a long cut from the top of her head to below her shoulder. "How dare you" Shadow spat before running for Blood Ray.  
Blood Ray kept sending attacks at Shadow who simply dodged them.

Mean while, Black Ray was fighting of Tails, Leah, Rouge and had already gotten Omega down, when Sonic hit him from behind knocking him over where Rouge and Leah each picked him up by an arm.

"Chaos Control!" Sonic said, trying to do what he had twice before. But this time Black Ray was ready. He swung his doy around, throwing Leah int Tails and Rouge aside, and then used Chaos Control to block Sonic's attempts. Sonic frowned, but dodged the Chaos spears Black Ray sent at him.

Mean while, Shadow grabbed Blood Ray and Knocked him into Amy's hammer, which he dodged by teleporting next to Sonic.

Every one seemed to be attacking Blood Ray while Sonic stood alone with Knuckles facing Black Ray. Sonic smirked to Knuckles "It's been too long" Sonic said to him. Knuckles nodded in agreement.  
The three sent attack after attack to their respective opponent who easily dodged in and then sent an attack of their own which was dodged.  
This went on for several minutes until Sonic noticed Blood Ray and Black Ray were close enough together and distracted. It was time.

"Chaos Control!" Sonic shouted, freezing Black Ray and Blood Ray in place.

Blood Ray gathered the energy of his five Emeralds and used them to over power Sonic's one and freed themselves and teleported Sonic's emerald into his hand.

Sonic's eye's widened with shock. Black Ray and Blood Ray had the sixth Emerald!  
"Chaos Blast!" Blood Ray shouted along with Black Ray. A field of Chaos energy began making its way toward Sonic and the others and there wasn't anything any one else could do.  
But the Emerald Blood Ray had taken began glowing in Blood Ray's hand, and Sonic felt it. Somehow, the emerald was still in Sonic's control.

Taking a deep breath, Sonic Shouted. "Chaos control!" Yet again taking control of Black Ray and Blood Ray. Sonic quickly forced Blood Ray to recall the Chaos Blast and teleported the two to Holoska, before dropping to his knees.

Every one took a seat in the wrecked ball room, equally exhausted.

After several moments, Leah got to her feet and walked to Tails.  
When she got to him, she grabbed his hand, got him up and pulled him into a deep kiss.

**There you all are. I feel safe pr****omiseing**** the next chaptelter next week.**


	19. Chapter eighteen

**Hey I said later this week, but i should have said here in half an hour. Any way, we're nearing the conclusion. Who here is ready for some plot twists?**

**Chapter Eighteen**

Shadow ran to help the drained Sonic to his feet. Though they had lost the Chaos Emerald, Sonic was able to hold them off and get rid of them through Chaos Control with an Emerald Blood Ray and Black Ray possessed. Sonic had fought valiantly. But at the same time, so did every one else. Even Leah. Shadow looked to see Leah was still busy with Tails.

"You did fine" Shadow said, remembering something Maria had said about positive reenforcement.  
Sonic raised his thumb "I know we lost the Emerald, but there's still one more out there"  
Shadow nodded. That last emerald could be their last hope. Should it fall into the hands of Black Ray and Blood Ray they would all be doomed.

Rouge looked over to Tails and Leah, still passionately kissing. She supposed it was nice for Tails to have a girl, but Rouge still couldn't trust Leah. She had betrayed Rouge in a terrible way and didn't even care. Tails deserved someone better.

Mean while, Amy was thinking close to the same thing. She always thought that Tails would be with someone who hadn't betrayed their country in any way, shape or form. But she guessed Tails would be happy now. Or would he? What did he see in her? She was very beautiful, but she also had this sly sleazy thing about her. And Shadow and Rouge were both sure she could not be trusted. Amy just wasn't sure.

After many long moments, Tails and Leah broke their kiss.  
"that was nice" Tails said  
"is that it?" Leah joked  
Leah took Tails by the hand and took him out of the building.  
"isn't it about time I see your amazing workshop you've told me all about?" Leah asked  
"sure thing" he said picking her up and flying away.

Knuckles had brought Cream to the nearest hospital for her injuries And Omega was securing the perimeter. The only ones left at the former ball room were Sonic, Shadow, Amy and Rouge.  
Shadow looked at Amy and rouge and nodded his approval.

"what now?" Amy asked  
Shadow crossed his arms and looked up in thought.  
"We find the last Chaos Emerald and finish this" Sonic said with a smile, flicking his nose with his thumb.

"have any clue on where to start bluie?" Rouge asked  
Sonic smiled and shrugged "not one"  
"we should split up, the four of us. When we locate an Emerald, we meet at the location of our first encounter with Black Ray." Shadow said  
"trying to be poetic?" Sonic joked  
"I'm trying to win a loosing battle"  
"See you all later" Sonic said running in search of the last Chaos Emerald. Rouge, Amy and Shadow split up in the other three directions.

As Shadow ran East, his mind wondered over the past few weeks. He had managed well without Chaos Control, and at this point wondered if it was at all possible to get it back.

He sure hoped it was.

**Else Where**

Blood Ray looked left and right at the Chaos Emeralds floating about the chamber they were standing in. Soon, they would have the seventh and finish Sonic once and for all. And Blood Ray still had it waiting for him, the tool to ultimate power.

Black Ray observed the Emeralds from the other side of the room. He didn't know why we was there any more or even if he still had a purpose. He had been so content to kill Sonic the Hedgehog but that goal had floated away ever since Blood Ray came along.

"Black Ray" Blood Ray said "you are not who the doctor said you are. I am not either"

Black Ray's head shot up and all his attention was directed toward Blood Ray. "Do please elaborate" Black Ray said, hoping Blood Ray would confirm Metal Sonic's story.

"we were not created" Blood Ray said "We were born to a being on another world. And then we were trained in the way of Chaos Control and given a mission"

Black Ray frowned. This isn't what he wanted to hear at all. But he let Blood Ray continue.

"our mission was to destroy weaker civilizations, like the humans, and make way for stronger ones to grow. We spent years plotting and then when your part came, you crashed on earth and because of your failure, I was locked on the meteor. Now the Doctor's freeing us is a perfect opportunity for us to finish what we started and for that, We need seven Chaos Emeralds!"

The Emeralds seemed to float closer to Blood Ray. "we have six now and only one person stands in our way: Sonic the Hedgehog"  
Black Ray nodded. His eyes had changed to red and Blood Ray's smile broadened.  
"Come my brother" Blood Ray said "It is time to locate that Emerald and claim this world as our own"

Black Ray was convinced to get the Emerald, but not the story. He now had three different stories and he still couldn't trust Blood Ray enough to take his story as the true one.  
But despite all of that, Black Ray followed Blood Ray out of the base and on a final expedition for the Chaos Emerald.

**Else where**

"Sonic!" Shadow shouted at the blue hedgehog. Sonic stopped and turned around, wondering what it was Shadow wanted.

"What is it Shadow?"  
Shadow stopped and crossed his arms.  
"I know what to do" Shadow said  
"You found a Chaos Emerald?" Sonic asked. Shadow nodded "Where?"  
"It is my belief the last Chaos Emerald is in the Chaos Zone"  
Sonic frowned "How do you know?"  
Shadow smiled "That doesn't matter, but I do have a theory"  
"What is it?" Sonic asked, growing impatient and tired of standing still

"Back at the dance, the Emerald stayed connected to you after Blood Ray took it because you used the positive side of it which is more powerful then the negative side Black Ray and Blood ray use. But if you were to do the same thing in the Chaos zone, then theoretically you could use the energy OF the Chaos Zone"

Sonic frowned again "how do you know this?"

"Doctor Gerald Robotnic came up with the theory. He believed the Chaos Zone was made up of the positive energy and that it could be used by someone who had gained the loyalty of the Chaos Emerald, which you have" Shadow said "And I think he was right

The smile returned to Sonic's face. "Alright Shadow, do you know how to get to the Chaos zone right now?"  
Shadow nodded again "Chaos Control. A feat that I know you can perform with a fake emerald. and I know where you you can get one"

"Tails!"  
"Correct. I do believe Miles has been conducting experiments involving fake emeralds."  
Sonic raised his thumb "Alright. let's go Shadow!"  
With that, Sonic ran toward Tails' lab, with Shadow just behind him.

**Else where**

"No, this is all false" Metal Sonic said to Black ray.  
Black ray had just informed Metal Sonic of the story Blood Ray had told him.  
"I don't know what Blood Ray is up to, but he has lied to you."  
Black Ray nodded "So, what do I do"

"Well Black Ray, I think we need the six Chaos Emeralds. then we can question Blood Ray"  
"I can do this, but I have to do it slowly. Blood Ray is dangerous"  
"I understand. But you must return to him now. he can't be suspicious"

Black Ray nodded and left, leaving Metal alone again.  
His plans will all come together,  
Very soon.

Very soon indeed

**Else where**

The police captain found himself, yet again, at a disturbing murder scene.

Four victims, all men, were killed and every once of blood drained from their bodies.  
Of course, three of these men were criminals who were being watched by two cops in a near by car on a stake out, but they too were murdered with no blood remaining in their bodies.

This was now an emergency. There was a killer on the loose who was not only killing people, but stealing their blood.  
This would make for an interesting report.

Meanwhile, in the shadow's, the creature responsible sat watching the police. to many to kill now, but the time would come.

It called again to it's master, informing him that it was ready to become known.

**There you have it. I wish I could have done more background on the monster, but my priority lied elsewhere. Any way, No more chapters tonight, but I hope to get a review. I want to know what you all have thought of these past few character heavy chapters. They're the ones I enjoy writeing. But hey, we've got a action heavy episode coming up next when we return with Chapter nineteen.**


	20. Chapter Nineteen

**Well, here I am at the end of the week with yet another chapter. **

**Chapter Nineteen**

Tails walked through the mountains beside a stream, holding Leah's hand.  
"That was a stunning plane ride MIles" Leah said.  
Tails smiled "I'm glad you think so"  
"I do" She said kissing his cheek.  
The two stopped at the top of the stream, looking down at a water fall.

"That's beautiful" Leah said in awe.  
"Not as beautiful as you are" Tails said, causing Leah to blush.  
"That's sweet of you to say MIles. Thank you"  
"Thank you, for these past few days. you were excellent at the dance"  
"The dancing or the fighting?"  
"Both"

The two stared at the falls for many minutes, Tails enjoying Leah's company  
"Who's that ring for?" Leah asked, making conversation while she secretly reached into her purse.  
"Someone I used to know" Tails said, feelings of guilt coming up.  
"I only hope I'm not betraying her by being with you"  
"Miles, She would want you to be with someone" Leah said, leaning in closer "Someone who loved you very much"

Leah kissed Tails again, and the two stayed like that. Leah slowly opened her eyes to make sure Tails' were closed. She laughed in her head at his cute tendency to trust any one. Then, with Tails distracted, she reached into her purse and pulled out a full syringe.

Then, she separated from tails, Grabbed his hand and they walked in silence to the edge of the fall. All the while, Leah was concealing the syringe.  
"Leah, I love you" Tails said with a smile. Leah smiled back at him  
"Tails, I wish I could say the same"  
Then she grabbed Tails in front of her and held the syringe to his throat. Tails closed his eyes. He had been fooled.

There was no sense in asking why. why else would an Ex-GUN agent try to kill him? She was hired to. These past few days had meant nothing. Rouge had been right.  
Tails found himself wishing he could apologize to so many people. Rouge for doubting her, Sonic for abandoning his quest against Black Ray. But more importantly, To Cosmo for betraying her.

"Just here to kill me?" Tails asked  
"Kill you and find out what you know about Black Ray"  
Tails shrugged. Why not? "I know he has a black arm centered DNA strand with traces of Sonic's and Shadow's. Personally, I think it's tearing him apart"  
Leah smiled "good enough."

She started pushing the needle into Tails' neck when Rouge flew down and kicked it away as well as separating the two. Rouge then landed between the two.

"Well, well Leah" Rouge said with a smirk "Up to no good again?"  
"What can I say? old habits and what not"  
The two began circling each other. Tails stepped forward but was waved off by Rouge.  
"Stay down cutie. This has been a long time coming"  
Tails stepped back to observe the former partners ready to fight.

"step down Leah, we both know how this will end"  
Leah smirked "Yes we do" Leah jumped forward and kicked Rouge in the face, knocking her down.  
"You taught me every thing I know"  
"Maybe I did" Rouge started.  
Leah kicked at Rouge again, But Rouge flew to her feet and dodged. Leah swung again with her fist but Rouge grabbed the arm and spun her around. Then Leah tried to kick upwards, but her foot was caught and Rough threw her to the ground.

"But not every thing I know" Rouge finished

The Ex-spy Jumped to her feet, avoiding another one of the bat's attacks and stared down her old teacher.  
Then, Leah lunged forward to her dropped purse. Rouge saw her goal, and blocked the fox.  
"Going somewhere?' She asked.

The fox swung her leg at Rouge who ducked under it and threw a punch. As the fist approached her face, Rouge caught it and tried to flip Leah, But Leah grabbed Rouge's wrist and used her weight to get Rouge to the ground and tried to kick her again, but rouge jumped out of the way and kicked Leah back.

Rouge then ran for the purse but Leah threw a rock at her feet which Rouge simply flew over, but it allowed enough time for Leah to jump onto Rouge and pull her to the ground.  
Once down, Leah jumped off and kicked Rouge repeatedly until Rouge couldn't respond to her jumping for her purse and pulling a hand gun out. Leah pointed it at Rouge who had just gotten to her feet.

"Hands up" Leah said.  
Rouge knew Leah would only wait a couple of seconds before pulling the trigger. Thinking fast, Rouge gave a quick glace to the left of Leah who, startled, took a quick look behind her.

Rouge took that brief moment to kick the gun from Leah's grasp and into the stream.  
Leah quickly kicked Rouge, but being caught off guard, Rouge kicked her leg aside and grabbed Leah from behind, holding her arm around Leah's throat.

"How did you know to follow us?" Leah asked, trying to buy time  
"Well sweetie, People come to this stream to dump bodies. let me give you an example"  
Rouge them twisted Leah's head to the side, breaking her neck.

The body was promtly dropped into the stream, and carried away by the tide. Tails watched it, feeling a bit of pain. One watching her die, but mostly feeling bad for blowing off Rouge's warnings. He also felt humiliated by the events.

"Thank you Rouge" Tails said "And I'm sorry"  
"Don't worry" Rouge said with a smile "You aren't the first dimwitted sap she's fooled"  
Tails smiled. He knew by insulting him, she was forgiving him.  
"You look tired" Tails said "How 'bout I give you a ride?"  
Rouge nodded "I never say no to free things"

The two then got onto his plane and flew away, where Rouge caught him up on the Black ray situation.

**Else Where**

"Ready?" Sonic said to Shadow. They were both falling down toward a Chaos Emerald in the Chaos Zone.

"indeed"

Sonic grabbed Shadow's wrist with one hand and the Chaos Emerald in the other. He only had a second before they would be transported out of the Chaos Zone.

"Chaos Control!" Sonic shouted, bypassing the exit and appearing on top of a spherical structure covered in smaller red and blue spheres. Thanks to the power of the Chaos Emerald in Sonic's hand, they could control their movement.

"What now Shadow?" Sonic asked  
"Use Chaos Control and focus on calling the other six emeralds here. Black Ray and Blood Ray will think that it is guiding them to the seventh" Shadow turned to Sonic with a smile. "And it will"  
Sonic held the cyan emerald out and concentrated on the others. "Chaos Control" He said quietly.

Shadow looked around for a door to open. _Any time _He thought. But perhaps Sonic wasn't doing it right. But how else could Shadow explain it? This is one of those times where his Chaos Control would come in very handy. All he had were two glove covers Tails had invented that shot Chaos spears. But it only lasted as long as the artificial Chaos Emeralds had power.

"Sonic!" Shadow started, but at that instant, Black Ray and Blood Ray stepped from a newly opened hole on another sphere few meters away.  
Sonic smirked "What was that Shadow?" he said.  
Shadow ignored his comment "We go for the Chaos Emeralds. I know it's a cliche at this point, but it's now or never. There are no more emeralds to-" Shadow started, but Sonic jumped to the next sphere .

"Heya Black Ray!" Sonic said with a smile while holding out the Emerald.  
"Well, well, well" Black Ray said. "Will you hand over the Chaos Emerald, or will we have to take it"  
"So what? I hand this to you and I leave with my life?'  
"No" Blood Ray smiled "We kill you either way"

"Then I guess I've got nothing left to lose" Sonic said before jumping into a nearby endless half tube track and running off at his top speed. Black Ray and Blood Ray followed.

Shadow jumped behind the two hedgehogs, still undetected.  
_Let's see if these work Miles _Shadow thought, holding out both of Tails' Chaos spear gloves.

Blood Ray began his run with Black Ray when he had a strange feeling that he should turn around. He turned around to see a blast of some sort. he swung his hand to create a basic, low energy shield. But being a Chaos attack, it passed through the shield and hit Blood Ray.

Shadow then realized that this was his chance. Using the special thought triggers, he emptied the energy, continuously hitting a vulnerable Blood ray to the ground.

_What Now?_ Shadow thought. Usually he would follow up with a number of diverse Chaos attacks, but he didn't have a lot of options. So he did the only thing he could do. He ran to Blood Ray and hit him with a series of punches and kicks he had learned on the Ark and honed in his time working for the GUN.

Luckily, it was enough to keep an unsuspecting Blood Ray down until he dropped one of his three Chaos Emeralds . Shadow picked up the yellow gem and dove out of the way. And he was glad he did, otherwise he would have been struck my the multitude of chaos attacks Blood Ray sent out in rage.

Meanwhile, Sonic was in the middle of a violent race with Black Ray down the half-tube.  
_Chaos spear _Black Ray thought. But as he fired, Sonic rolled around at kicked the Emerald out of Black Ray's grasp.

Before Sonic could grab it, it disappeared. Then Sonic and Black Ray had a thought, a thought that wasn't their own that seemed to have come from the Chaos Zone its self. _Get 50 rings_.

Sonic and Black Ray glanced at each other for a moment before dashing off towards the rings.

After a few minutes of failed attacks and grabbing rings, they both had just 50 rings. Then came the second goal: _Get 75 rings _The two ran forward to see a large group of rings, as well as a group of bombs lining the track.

The two ran, grabbing rings as they went.  
Black Ray launched a set of spears, trying to knock Sonic into a bomb. But Sonic merely slid under it.  
At last, Sonic and Black Ray had all of the rings required, and the glowing red became visible.

Sonic ran and grabbed the Emerald. He looked back at Black Ray who in rage, Swung a chaos attack at the floor of the tube, unfortunately, the attack that was supposed to trip Sonic wound up shattering the area of the tube. after a flash of light and energy, Sonic and Black Ray fell through.

The two hedgehogs fell several yards down toward a full glass-like pipe.  
On impact, the crystal shattered as the tube had above them, stunning them both in a burst of Chaos Energy. The crash managed to loosen the Chaos Emerald from Black Rays grip, and it shot down the pipe in a stream of purple.

Sonic and Black Ray slowly got to their face before realizing the Emerald was gone.  
Sonic got to his feet, preparing to run. Unfortunately for him, Black Ray shot a spear at Sonic, who quickly dodged, and then rammed into Black Ray, stopping him from running himself.  
When Black Ray pushed back, Sonic used the momentum to run off and get a head start on the emerald. Black Ray followed.

Meanwhile, Shadow was standing on a plain facing Blood Ray with a dozen flying Saucers floating above them.  
Blood Ray threw a spear at him, but he jumped up, grabbed a saucer, and sent it towards Blood Ray, deflecting the shot.

Blood Ray advanced toward Shadow, who rolled out of the way.  
Blood Ray then flipped back, jumped on a saucer and began throughing bursts of Chaos energy at Shadow, who himself jumped on a saucer and menipulated it's movements, and dodged the blasts, remaining one of the only remaining saucer.

Seeing his opening, Shadow tossed the saucer at Blood Ray who, in his brief distraction, was jumped by Shadow, and sent over the edge of the platform, toward the crystal pipe below where Black Ray had gained an edge on Sonic, and was aproaching the Chaos Emerald.

Shadow grabbed Blood Ray so he could use him to obsorb the shock that would come when the broke through the crystal.

Black Ray was so consumed with his goal that he didn't see Shadow. But Sonic did, and he knew what he was doing. acting quickly, He jumped at and wresled Black Ray to the ground, allowing Shadow to break through the glass and grab the emerald, tossing Blood Ray through the bottom.

Sonic rolled over next to Shadow just before Blood Ray teleported beside Black Ray and pulled him to his feet.  
Shadow showed Sonic the two Emeralds while Sonic smiled, holding up his two.

"Chaos Control" Sonic said, using the power of all four to suspend Black Ray and Blood Ray frozen. "See you later" He said before teleporting them to the farthest point on earth he could think of. then he fell to his knees.

"What did you do? We had them!" Shadow yelled  
Sonic held up his thumb and got to his feet "Don't worry Shadow. we have the upper hand now!"  
"What do you plan on doing now?"  
"You'll see" He said, with his widest smile since there first fight with Black Ray so many weeks ago.

"Chaos Control" Sonic said. The two disappeared from the Chaos zone, leaving nothing but silence, and taking their first great victory.

**There you all are. We are all indeed nearing the close. Are heroes have finally had a real vi****c****tory. Our next chapter features the truth about Black Ray and Blood Ray, as well as more Metal Sonic! I'll be seeing you next week. By the way: I would like to hear what you all think of the Leah sub story, as well as how I might improve action sequences as of to make them more interesting.**


	21. Chapter Twenty

**Here you all are. I'm sorry it took so long. I had to rewrite this entire chapter because the original never saved. **

**Chapter Twenty**

Black Ray walked painfully slow down an ally in Capital City. The ally was dark and filled with fog. If ever there were a land of evil, this was it.  
It wasn't the ally or the darkness that gave it this impression, but the general atmosphere. An eeriness hung down which, of course, was amplified by the environment.

Black Ray's body seemed to be screaming at him, begging for him to turn around and run. But he didn't. He had come all this way in response to a call he had been hearing the past few days. Perhaps it would be something worth the effort. after ascending to a near victory on his quest to kill Sonic the Hedgehog, an unexpected turn of events occured. Sonic and Shadow fought him and his "brother" Blood Ray in the Chaos zone and reclaimed three of the Chaos Emeralds they had aquired. giving Sonic's team the advantage. Afterwards he had heard this call stronger then ever and it led him to the deserted ally.

He took another step when he heard it- He wasn't sure what it was but it sounded like a foot step. Black Ray took two steps, before the creature flew out. Black ray couldn't make out details, but what he could see was terrifying. It came toward him and before he could react, a large taloon scraped across his throat, cutting a large gash into it.

Black Ray fell down. For weeks he had been attempting to kill Sonic, but in the end it would be him who moved no longer

**Elsewhere**

Sonic ran through the jungle to where he and Tails thought Eggman's hidden main base might be. Behind him flew the two tailed fox, eager to once again join the fight. The two moved for a while with no results. It was then that they decided that they needed to regroup so, they stopped next to a small stream.

"Well Sonic" Tails said "It looks like Eggman finally learned how to hide a base" The two chuckled.  
Sonic was glad to have Tails back. He didn't know what he would have done had the fox actually died.  
"Well budy, where to next?" Sonic asked Tails who was closely monitoring his small handheld device.

"Give me a sec" Tails replied. It was good to be on another adventure. It got his mind off Leah. There he went again, puting himself out and getting hurt. In the end, maybe Cosmo was the only one who could actually love him. He felt depressed, but remembered what he had told himself months before: Cosmo wouldn't want him to spend the rest of his life mourning her, and had the roles been reversed, he wouldn't want her eternally mourning over him, But it's not the kind of thing you can say "Get over it, don't be depressed" and then follow through with that command. It was a process and before his break down on the Typhoon and Leah, he thought he was doing well. His condition in the hospital seemed to prove otherwise. perhaps, Cosmo's death had traumatized him more then he thought. If that was the case, when would his next break down be?

For now it didn't matter. He had a job to do: locate Eggman's base. He looked dow for a moment and noticed something strange about the stream: It flowed toward the small lake from the big lake. all the others flowed to the big lake!  
"Sonic" Tails said, already coming to a conclusion "This stream is flowing the wrong way!" He said "Which means-"

Sonic nodded, knowing what it meant. the two made their way, back tracing the stream until they reached the bigger of two lakes. The stream didn't touch the lake at all! it lead to a rock. a couple spindashes revealed a sewage tunnel. All though sewage tunnel gives the wrong impression, It was really quite clean. No doubt, Eggman built a filtration system somewhere.

The two walked though the tunnel until they found them selves below a large grate. Tails flew up and moved the grate before carrying sonic up there. The two friends found themselves in a large shower.  
"Gross" Sonic said "I'll never be able to think about the Eggster the same way again"  
Tails nodded in agreement.

After idly wondering through the base and smashing about a hundred robots, They found Eggman fleeing toward a battle machine. Before he could reach it however, Sonic and Tails knocked his Eggmobile to the ground

"Sonic!" Eggman pleaded "Please don't do anything!"  
Sonic smirked "I'm not going to" he said "I just want you to deliver a message for me"  
"Make it quick" He said  
Sonic smiled, preparing the last phase in his battle against Black Ray.

**Nowhere:**

Black Ray's eyes snapped opene. For the life of him, he couldn't remember how he got here.  
"Here" was a very strange place. It was nothing but white going on forever. And somehow, It was all familiar.

"Black Ray" came a distant voice.  
Black Ray turned around to see a strange creature coming toward it. It was tall and monstrous looking, covered in black skin with pink tints here and there. "I need you" It said. But contrary to it's look, it had a female's voice. It was soft and comforting. And now, it was right in front of him.

"who are you?" Black Ray asked, trying to contain his fear. But this creature towered over him at about eight feet.  
"you don't remember me Black Ray?" the female creature said "I am pink Ray"  
Black Ray rolled his eyes. Another Ray?  
When Black Ray didn't respond, Pink Ray looked confused. Or at least, it looked confused to Black  
Ray.

"why do you hold that hideous form?" Pink Ray asked.  
Black Ray raised an eye brow "who's calling who hideous?"  
"Not only has the creator done terrible things to your memory, your taste has changed" she said "so for you, I will-"

With that, she began glowing. In a second she changed into a pink blob and the transformed into a pink hedge that looked identical to him. Except where Black Ray had a masculine look, Pink Ray was now very beautiful. Black Ray just starred at Pink Ray who in turn smiled.

"I guess this form isn't too bad handsome" she then looked down at At Black Ray's gloves and shoes. "what are those for, may I?" she asked  
"what?" black Ray replied.  
Pink Ray just held on to the neon green ring wrapped around his wrist. Black Ray just stood there, too intoxicated by her beauty to do any thing.

In a second, the two's eyes began glowing. Black Ray felt a strange presence in his mind, and the Pink Ray let go and it faded.

"interesting culture" Pink Ray said before forming a dress shoes and gloves for herself out of particles floating around. Of course, the gloves were tight and the shoes didn't match so that she had Black Ray's comical appearance.

"that's better" she said "now Down to business"

She then waved her hand and the white nothingness transformed into a large chamber with metal floors and ceiling. The room also had counter tops with computers and containers of liquid. Black Ray got the feeling they were in some sort of lab, but one less sophisticated as Doctor Robotnik's.

On one wall was a large machine with six canisters. One of the canisters had no windows and was easily four times the size of the other canisters which were narrow- all identical to the canister the doctor and he had found Blood Ray in- which is not what shocked Black Ray. What shocked him was that one of the canisters was the one he and the doctor had found. And Blood Ray- in his blob like form- was inside of it.

The other canisters were full of similar blobs. One was pink, one was orange, one was blue and the last was black. Black Ray quickly realized that the black one was him, which meant that this lab probably belonged to Robotnic and Metal Sonic. And the pink blob was probably this Pink Ray- following this logic, the other colored blobs were rays as well. But why didn't Metal mention this? And where was he anyway?

"where are we?" Black Ray asked. His first thought was that he shouldn't trust her, but his every instinct told him that she was fine. He even felt a sense of comfort around her.  
"Here is the 'vrtual' zone as the creator calls it" she replied  
"who is-"  
"you will learn" She cut him off.

At that moment, A strange creature walked into the room. He was tall- very similar in stature to what Pink Ray had looked like before she morphed into a hedgehog.  
"Watch and learn" Pink Ray said pointing to the creature.

The creature walked up to a computer that was plugged into the canister machine and started putting in information. A closer inspection revealed that the creature was inserting very well designed organs that could change forms along with the blobs.

"Gak!" came a yell.  
At that moment, two creatures, also similar looking, came in carrying weapons and a chain. They grabbed the other creature, who's name Black Ray figured was Gak, and locked him in the chin.  
"His greatness wants you" One of the creatures growled.

They then dragged Gak at of the lab, and Black Ray followed through one of the most terrifying places he had ever seen. The buildings were carved from spungy looking rocks and toxic green rivers covered most of the land.

All the inhabitants- creatures similar to Gak- were carrying weapons and traveling on hovering boards. Then there was a line of these soldiers dragging along dying bodies and dropping them in the river. "Welcome to the black comet" Pink Ray said.

They followed the soldiers and Gak to a small cave that was decorated with heads and weapons Black Ray cringed at. And in the center of the chamber stood another creature. This one had no legs and appeared to be floating. He wore a cloak with saws and knifes dangling from chains that were draped over his soldiers.  
"Who is that?" Black Ray asked  
"That is the ruler of the Black Arms: Black Doom" Pink Ray responded

The soldiers dropped Gak and left the room, leaving Gak, Black doom, and Doom's personal guards, two Black and gold colored black arms. Black Ray watched as Gak bowed before Black Doom. And Black Ray could see why- he would too. Black Doom looked down to his humbled servant.

"you were not in our last raid" Black Doom said simply.  
"I was working on the weapons" Gak stuttered  
"we have weapons, what we need are soldiers"  
"and when I'm dome, you will have five of the best soldiers science can produce! I swear"  
Black Doom waved his hand, sending a wave of energy crashing into Gak and forming a large gash. Black Ray was reminded a little much of what Blood Ray did to him.

"why will this project work any better then your last?" Black Doom asked.  
"the MK was doomed to fail- but these Black Arms I am creating are made the same way I made Black Bull... They won't fail"

Black doom nodded and dropped on a stone as if he were sitting. "I would hope not. By the next raid- that's all of the time I'm giving you"

Black Doom then waved his hand and the two golden Black  
Arms pulled Gak to his feet and dragged him back to his lab. He didn't dare object.

Then the setting dissolved and the two saw Gak working on a computer. Black Ray was already confused.

**Now originally, this was the next to last chapter, but it wound up being twice as long as my usual chapter, so I split it into two. So, until next time.**


	22. Chapter TwentyOne

**Hey there people. Here I have chapter 21, (or 20 part 2). So any way, This chapter will tie up some loose ends about Black Ray. Hopefully, it won't be too confusing. Some things are just explaining things that had been introduced earlier, but nothing ever became of them. So, here you are.**

**Chapter Twenty-One**

Black Ray stood in this "virtual zone" unsure of What was happening. He had been guided here my Pink Ray, where he was seeing the shadow of something that had taken place a long time ago. Here, on the Black Commet, They had wittnessed what Black Ray was suspecting to be his true creator in a discussion with the leader of the Black Arms, Black Doom.

Now, in the blink of an eye, they had returned to Gak's lab.

"what did we just witness?" Black Ray asked  
"Gak is the only good Black arm" Pink Ray said quickly before pointing at the capsules "he's lying. Those aren't super Black Arm for the black Arms, they're super Black Arms against the Black arms. Make sense?"

Black Ray nodded, but he wasn't entirely sure it did make sense. Then a Black Arm soldier burst in. "I'm here to check your progress" it growled. Black Ray pointed at the five capsules.

"the small four are the soldiers." Gak explained  
"what's the big one?" the soldier asked  
"the MK monster" he said. Black Ray caught a hint of disgust in Gak's voice, but it went over the soldier's head.  
"why won't you dispose of it?" the soldier asked suspicious.  
"I'm breaking down the cells slowly in there for use with other projects" Gak replied.

But there was something in Gak's voice that Black Ray found strange. Then it hit him. Gak had just lied to the Black Arm. Obviously the MK was a very deadly weapon the Gak had made before which would mean that he had not always been good. At some point, he really was making weapons for the Black Arms, but now he had seem the error of his ways.

Pink Ray smiled at his realization. "you catch on quick" she said "and the MK is actually being used by Gak to make the four anti Black Arm Black Arms"  
Black Ray nodded and continued watching Gak.  
"well, that's good enough" the soldier said before knocking Gak to the ground and leaving the premises.

Gak exhaled and continued his work.  
Pink Ray waved her hand and the room desolved again. Now the capsules had a glow about them and there were more tubes and wires tranporting liquid.  
Gak was typing vigorously into a key board. Then he pulled a large lever next to the capsules. with that, a liquid was drained from the capsules and Gak stood looking nervous.

After many moments, the capsules opened up and five differently colored blobs floated out. Black Ray circled them when he noticed the power source of the capsules: two Chaos Emeralds.  
Then the blobs began to take shape into black Arm like creatures. The results knocked the breath from Black Ray.

One of them was obviously Pink Ray and she looked like she did when Black Ray met her earlier that day. But the one that caught his eye was the black one with blue spots, it was him. It was Black Ray.

Next to her were two more creatures, one blue and and the other was orange. It took Black Ray only a minute to identify their names: probably Orange Ray and Blue Ray if they fallowed the same pattern.

Then his eyes wondered to Blood Ray. He looked different. Not only in his Black Arm form, but he lacked that evil presence he had as Black Ray had known him. He looked calm and din't seem as unpredictable. Not at all like the Blood Ray Black Ray knew.

Black Ray almost thought that he could could trust this younger Blood Ray, until his head snapped toward Black Ray's and the two stared into the others eyes. This was the Blood Ray he knew. To this point, Black Ray knew he shouldn't be vissible to this Blood Ray- and yet here he, looking right at him.

"I thought they couldn't see us?" Black Ray asked Pink Ray. She shook her head.  
"they can't" She said, equally confused. This was an "after image" and they shouldn't be able to effect what had already happened. This freightened Black Ray that much more.  
Black Ray continued staring into Blood Ray's eyes until Black Gak began speaking.

"Can you speak?" he asked.  
The past Black Ray stepped forward. "Yes, creator" he said in a voice the present Black Ray knew well.

Gak smiled "knowledge and speech. Perfect"  
"Creator, what is our purpose?" the past Black Ray asked. The others nodded in agreement.

"I will explain. But first" he started pulling out a neon green ring and handing it to Black Ray. "this ring has been created from a piece of each Chaos Emerald. It will help you in many ways"

At that, everything disappeared, and Black Ray and Pink Ray were standing again in the white nothingness.

"what happened after we were created?" Black Ray asked.  
"we were trained by the Black Arms and educated by Gak" Pink Ray said before smiling "ironic really. The Black Arms preparing their own destruction, or so it seemed"  
"So it seemed?" Black Ray asked.

Pink Ray's expression saddened and the area shifted back to Gak's lab. Gak's entrance was barred and Pink Ray was strapped to wires and appeared to be transparent.

"what's going on creator?" Orange Ray asked.  
"terrible things" he replied. "I didn't want to explain it in details, but I seem to have no choice."  
Black Ray then noticed Blood Ray was missing from the assembled Rays.

"Blood Ray has betrayed us." Gak started which immediately sparked the assembled Rays (except Pink Ray who could only listen as her body was disappearing gradually).  
"He joined the evil ones?" Blue Ray asked  
Gak shook his head. "I doubt it. He has his own agenda and is only using Black Doom. He has already tried to steal the MK but I launched it away into space. It will be untraceable."

"What are you doing to Pink Ray?" The past Black Ray asked.  
"you are all going one at a time to my own virtual zone. You will be safe there until the time comes when you will emerge and bring down the Black Arm empire" Gak explained. The door then began shaking; the soldiers were trying to get in.

"why can't we fight now?" Orange Ray asked  
"they are too strong my child. You must wait"

With that, Pink Ray was successfully in the virtual zone and gone completely. But ounce that happened, the first laser made it's way into the lab.

"there's no more time" Gak said "get into the capsules"  
"but-" Blue Ray started but he was cut off.  
"now!" Gak shouted and the Rays quickly got into four of the five large capsules they were created in.

After that, Gak launched them into space and got ready to climb into the fifth capsule. But before he could reach it, Black Doom burst into the lab and knocked Gak to his feet. he then pulled a hanging knife from his cloak and held it up.

"You have betrayed us Gak" he said menacingly  
"No, please!" Gak pleaded "it meant nothing! I meant nothing"  
Black Doom appeared to be smiling.  
"with the power vested in me, I proclaim you unfit to live"

With that, Black Doom dropped the Knife into Gak's chest which instantly started pouring blood when Black Doom pulled it out.  
"good bye Gak" Doom said as he shoved Gak's dying body into the capsule and let it fly into space.  
Then it all disappeared and Black Ray stood alone with Pink Ray.

"So.." Black Ray started.  
"it's a little confusing what happened after that. Let me answer any questions" Pink Ray said  
Black Ray had so many, he didn't know where to begin.

"I'm not a hedgehog?" He started. Pink ray chuckled  
"no, you're not"  
"I'm a Black Arm?"  
"no, you're a whole new species. A species that can mimic the appearance of any one of them"

She said this and transformed into a human, and then a black arm, and then back to a hedgehog.  
Black Ray tried to morph, but found he was unable.

"you can't. Not now any ways" Pink Ray said.  
"why not?"  
"it is one of several Ray abilities you can only access if you know who you are"  
"I know who I am!" Black Ray insisted.

Pink Ray shook her head "Do you have flashes where you undergo a physical and mental change?"  
Black Ray thought for a moment. There were quite a few times when his eyes would become red like Blood Ray's and he would starve for destruction. Is that what she meant?

"Yes" Black Ray answered hesitantly. Pink Ray smiled and nodded.  
"You have two different natures Black Ray. You were made from Black Arm brain cells giving you evil urges, and you have Gak's programing to be good" Pink Ray "you have to over come one of these sides"

"How?" Black Ray asked  
"you need to put one behind you. It seems you've almost become completely evil at times, but something has stopped you" Pink Ray said.  
"what?" he asked. Pink  
Ray put her hand to Black Ray's neon green ring, reading into his recent history.

"Interesting..." she mumbled  
"What?" Black Ray asked.

"It's interesting really. It'll take a moment to explain. What I believe happened to Blood Ray, is he gave in to his Black Arm nature. It is, I believe, much stronger then the 'good nature' Gak programed. So you should be just like Blood Ray, but you got verry lucky. The scientist who created you mixed your DNA with the DNA of a 'Sonic the Hedgehog' and one other. These two are basically good and have driven your motives- you still have a chance" She said.

Black Ray found himself trusting her. He didn't know why it took him so long. But he felt niow like he had to- cause he couldn't trust anyone else. She didn't want anything from him- She just told him.

"So what about this ring?" Black Ray said referring to the neon green ring clinging to his wrist.  
"That can access a higher level of Chaos Control, as well as help you Keep the other Rays in line" she said. "that's why Blood Ray is after it. There's also a rumor that one could establish a link with the MK"

Those were the words that got Black Ray. Every thing made sense. The MK was the one that had called and attacked Black Ray, and that was Blood Ray's plan the whole time: to get to the MK.

"So what now?" Black Ray asked.  
"you go back" Pink Ray replied "Blood Ray must be killed"  
"how do I go back?" Black Ray asked, already getting sick of having to ask questions.  
"there are two ways out of here. Gak's computer and-"

Black Ray didn't need to hear the wrest "The neon ring" he said. Pink Ray nodded.

"Come with me" Black Ray said  
"I can't. If we both leave here, neither of us could come back. And if you come back, we can plan the end of the Black Arms. But here, our thought are turned to power. Just like the Chaos Emerald." She said.

Black Ray understood.  
"I will go now then" he said.  
"wait" Pink Ray said. She walked to Black Ray and held his hands.  
"promise you'll come back"

"I promise" Black Ray said, knowing he probably couldn't keep that promise.

"good luck" she said.

Black Ray held up his wrist with the ring. "Chaos control" with those words,g he found himself back in the ally.

He quickly jumped to his feet where the MK spread it's wings and flew towards Black Ray who pulled out his emerald and batted it away.

"wait Black Ray!" came Blood Ray's monstrous voice. "You can't attack it"

Black Ray then remembered what Pink Ray had told him: Blood Ray had evil intentions that had to be stopped.

Black Ray turned and sent a spread of spears at Blood Ray who simply deflected them. But in Black Ray's being off guard, the MK shot a chaos attack at him, knocking the hedgehog to the ground.

"you will not attack me either" Blood Ray said frighteningly quietly. Then he teleported beside Black Ray and yanked the neon ring off his wrist.

"I'll take this"

Before Blood Ray could do any thing else, Black Ray realized that he had lost and teleported as far as he could with his one Chaos Emerald.

Blood Ray smirked and climbed onto the MK's back. It was time to express their independence from the doctor.

After a short flight, Blood Ray and the MK reached Eggman's now destroyed base. The only thing left was a screen with a motion sensor. When Blood Ray approached it, it sprang to life.

The monitor showed Eggman's face.

"Blood Ray of Black Ray you two are no longer necessary. But if you want the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic is in the city waiting for you. Goodbye"

With that the screen turned dark, and the MK and Blood Ray flew toward the city.

**And come back within the next three weeks as we conclude this 6 year story.****  
**


	23. Chapter TwentyTwo

**Well my dear readers, I am back with the final chapter. On February 12th 2006 I posted the first chapter, now On February 13th five years later I am posting the last chapter. **

**Chapter Twenty-One**

Sonic stood in the center of Capital City along side his most valuable allies and friends. Shadow stood to his left while Tails was on his right. Amy, and Knuckles stood behind him waiting for their chance to fight the oncoming battle.  
On any other day Sonic might be nervous given the nature of his opponents, but he had discovered his upper hand against them and now held four Chaos Emeralds.

Amy opened her mouth to say something but she couldn't. None of them could. The only thing that could break their tension didn't exist. Each one just stood in silence, waiting for Blood Ray or Black Ray.

Finally they heard it. A shriek from the distany horizon. The only problem was that neither Blood Ray or Black Ray made such sounds. Suddenly, even Sonic's great confidence was clouded with fear, as they saw the silhouette of a bird-like creature swiftly aproaching. Shadow watched, also noting a sence of unnatiral fear and realized that the creature was using Chaos Control to inspire fear.

Once the bird reached just a few meters away they could distinguish Blood Ray ridding atop it with reigns made of Chaos Energy.  
They also noticed that Black Ray wasn't with him, and they all had their own speculations on why.

Sonic thought maybe had was waiting as backup, Shadow figured he had failed Blood Ray, who had obviously claimed dominance, for the last time.

"Sonic the Hedgehog" Blood Ray said. "I grow weary of these games"  
"What can I say?" Sonic replied.  
Sonic prepared to use the power of his Emeralds, but Blood Ray had the combined power of the MK bird and the neon green ring that once sat on Black Ray's wrist.

"Chaos Blast" Blood Ray said. No one had a chance to dodge and they were all thrown back. Blood Ray used Chaos Control to regather Sonic's Emeralds. "you've held on to these long enough" he said.

Sonic rose to his feet ato try to grab the emeralds before they floated away.  
Blood Ray responded by pulling on the MK bird and the creature sent swirling mass of energy toward Sonic.  
Seeing it coming, Sonic quickly ran out of the way, but he was unable to see the bird flying toward him and he was knocked to the ground by Blood Ray.

Then, Blood Ray had the MK bird send another swirling mass at the still hedgehog on the ground.  
When it hit him, it circled Sonic, ripping skin and even tore it from the bone in places. Sonic laid there, unable to move.

"Sonic! No!" Amy screamed in horror and ran to his protection.  
Blood Ray smiled as he sent the MK into a dive toward Amy.  
On impact, it grabbed her with it's claws and dug into her flesh, staining her dress in blood.

Knuckles ran toward Amy and grabbed onto one of it's legs and shook the creature off. Amy fell to the ground with Sonic.

As the MK started flying up with Knuckles, Shadow jumped up and kicked it's leg, freeing the echidna. The two landed, but before they could get up, Blood Ray landed the bird in front of them.

"Aren't these your vessels of hope?" Blood Ray said holding out his six Chaos Emeralds. "Chaos Control"

Before their eyes, the Chaos Emerald disintegrated to dust which blew away. Shadow watched in horror as their last chance was lost. But was it? There was still one Chaos Emerald out there. But where could it be? They must be with Black Ray, but there was no telling where he was or how they would win the emerald from him.

Their first question was answered when the MK shot another blast as Shadow, and before it could hit, Black Ray jumped out and dragged Knuckles and Shadow over to Sonic, Amy and Tails before teleporting them all well out of Blood Ray's vision. in fact, they were all just outside the city.

Shadow jumped to his feet and prepared to strike back, but Black Ray had his hands up in a surrendered position.  
Shadow raised an eye brow "what is this?" he asked.  
The two walked circles around each other, Shadow on guard and Black Ray not.

"it will be hard for you to understand given our experience with each other, but I need your help as much as you need mine at" Black Ray said. Shadow didn't believe a word.

"you and Sonic could never kill us" Black Ray explained "That's how we were created. We were created so that only large amounts of Chaos Energy can kill us. The only way this is possible is the green ring Blood Ray is wearing" Black Ray continued holding up his bare wrist. "Blood Ray could get close to killing me when I was wearing it due to our connection. And now he has it and he plans terrible things for this world"

Black Ray had learned all this when he ran into Eggman in the jungle who "fired" him but not before telling about Blood Ray's past. After betraying Gak he had left the Black Arms and met a very evil being- a being who had sent him to burn worlds down for unknown reasons.

Shadow took a cautious step forward. "and?" he asked.  
"And to stop him, we need the seven Chaos Emeralds and to get those we need Sonic the Hedgehog" Black Ray finished.

Shadow looked to him with a frown and gestured toward the unconscious Sonic and Amy on the ground. "you are too late. Sonic is down and the emeralds have been ground to dust"  
Black Ray rolled his eyes "I know the fate of the Chaos Emeralds, that is why I need Sonic" Black Ray took a step toward Sonic with his own emerald out stretched before being kicked to the ground by Shadow.

"And you expect me to believe all that?" Shadow asked  
"No I don't" Black Ray said before tossing the emerald to Shadow. "I expect you to believe what you think is right. I have a job, and it right now is to kill Blood Ray or die myself. Kill me if you like. It will be the end of the legacy I never had. But know that you are taking a large risk in not taking my word"

Shadow stared long and hard at Black Ray. If he was telling the truth, then they needed him. But if this was a trap and Shadow was a fool- This is another time when Chaos Control was needed.

But then, why was it needed? He was the ultimate life form! Maria's words them rang in his head like a bell. "you can't rely only on your knight, you have so many other pieces"  
Shadow looked longer at Black Ray. They all relied now on his judgement of character.

Without further hesitation, Shadow rolled the Chaos Emerald to Black Ray.  
"Let's get started" he said with his arms crossed.  
Black Ray smirked a most Sonic-like smirk and brought the Chaos Emerald to the blue and pink hedgehogs.

He had seen Blood Ray do this. And given his new found powers, he held the Chaos Emerald up.

"Chaos Control" he muttered. At his command, Sonic's wounds started closing followed by Amy's, but leaveing them covered in blood.  
After a few moments, both of the woke up. Sonic looked to see Black Ray finish Amy's healing. He then glanced at Shadow who nodded, confirming his hypothesis.

"So" Sonic said to Black Ray "finally came around?"  
Black Ray nodded and helped them both to their feet.  
"Sonic!" Amy said, both relieved he was well and shocked at Black Ray sudden change of sides.  
"Now the Chaos Emeralds?" Shadow asked.  
Sonic was starting to catch on to what he missed.

Black Rat nodded and pointed to Knuckles. "you, emerald guardian" Black Ray said  
"Knuckles" he corected.  
"I need the master emerald now"  
Knuckles slowly put the emerald down and raised his guard in case Black Ray tried anything funny.

"Blood Ray can use only the negative end of the Chaos Emeralds, therefore he could only disintegrate that side beyond repair. Now we have to contact the positive end with my emerald and the master emerald. But this takes a lot of energy. As in, it will take two of us" he finished.

Sonic raised his thumb and they both grabbed on to the Chaos Emerald resting on the master emerald.  
"Chaos Control" they both said at the same time. Concentrating, they both together were able to gather the Emerald particles together and the Master Emerald reassembled them with ease.  
The Emerald they were holding onto lifted it's self from their grip and circled around in the air with it's other six partners.

Sonic has all the Chaos Emeralds.

Sonic looked around at the Emeralds before looking to Shadow and Black Ray who both nodded.

The Emeralds then tightened their circle so only Sonic was surrounded. They then began to spin faster while their glow grew brighter.  
Finally, a large white flash overcame every one's vision. And when they opened their eyes the Chaos Emeralds were gone and Sonic had changed.  
His fur and spikes had changed from blue to gold and Chaos Energy ran off his body, resembling a glow. So strong was the Chaos Energy that even his spikes stood up toward the sky.  
And where his eyes were once green they now were lit a bright red.

He was Super Sonic.

Black Ray turned to Super Sonic.  
"it's time" he said.

In another flash of light, he now stood with Black Ray and Shadow on a tall tower looking at Blood Ray who simply grinned at Sonic's new appearance.

"This will be fun" Blood Ray said before sending the MK into a dive toward the two hedgehogs and one Ray.

Super Sonic flew straight up while Shadow and Black Ray jumped to the streets below.

Before they left to help, Black Ray gestured Shadow to a stop.

"before we do this" Black Ray said with a lump in his throat. His mind flashed to his promise to Pink Ray: the promise he could no longer keep. He could not return to her and she would be left to hunt for the Black Arms alone.  
"When we first met, I stole your Chaos Control" he started.

Shadow stared into Black Ray's eyes, suddenly interested.  
"to get it back I have to be" he hesitated, wishing so much he had never done what he had. "I have to be dead" Black Ray finally got it out. Shadow raised an eye brow, wondering if he was understanding correctly.

"And I?" Shadow asked.  
"must kill me once I've killed Blood Ray.

Shadow contemplated it all.

"you are the ultimate life form" Black Ray said "Somewhere out there, there is an alien race called The Black Arms. One day, you have to find them and locate through computer a Pink Ray. I want you to help her kill them all." he finished.

Shadow smiled at the request, but didn't tell him of that alien species' fate. He had after all, already enielated the entire race nearly three years before. He wanted Black Ray to know they WOULD BE defeated, no sense in telling him the truth.  
The two stood in silence for a moment when Black Ray remembered- they had a battle to win.

"I need you to distract the bird while Sonic distracts Blood Ray. I need a full advantage" Black Ray said to Shadow who nodded before running the two ran in opposite directions.

Meanwhile, Super Sonic dodged another lunge before swinging his leg to the Bird's face, knocking it away briefly.  
Blood Ray sent another swirling attack at Super Sonic which was amplified threw the MK's mouth.  
Before impact, Super Sonic ran into it at his top speed and shattered the blast, sending it in every direction.  
Super Sonic then continued to charge toward the bird, but it was no good, this bird was too fast.

This continued until Shadow jumped up to the MK's leg and held it in place.

"Now Sonic!" he shouted.

Sonic then exhorted all of his energy to impacting the bird, but Blood Ray was ready. He focused the energy he and the bird had to fight Sonic.

Sonic pushed against the opposing force with all of his might. But it was a battle he was slowly losing. He pushed harder and harder. Though he had speed, strength wasn't his strong point, but he would not give up any time soon. He would keep on fighting, even if it felt like he was impacting a train.

He was slipping- faster and faster, he wasn't sure he could hold on longer then a few seconds. Two seconds...  
Shadow watched Sonic's struggle, struggling him self to hold the bird down. It would soon be over and then he would have to kill Black Ray.  
He never felt remorse for killing those who by all means deserved it, but Black Ray's last minute change reminded him too much of his own many years ago on the ARK.

At that moment, the bird knocked Super Sonic to the ground and flipped Shadow off, preparing for a fatal blow to the two pesky hedgehogs.

As Blood Ray reared back on the reigns, something caught his left wrist.  
Blood Ray looked to see Black Ray had hopped on top of the bird, climbed to the front and was now holding on to the neon green ring.

"this is all I need" Black Ray said solemnly.  
"Chaos Control" came Black Ray's final words.  
On his orders, Black Ray used the additional power of the ring with the Chaos Energy Super Sonic had loaned him.

Said orders released a powerful shock wave onto the three creatures, shaking and in some cases crushing organs Gak had so carefully designed over a hundred years ago. Bones were crushed, and Blood Ray let out a final scream.

Super Sonic and Shadow rose to their feet to see the bodies of the large bird and two rays impact the ground. None of them moved, nor would they ever move.

Super Sonic let the Chaos Emeralds leave him and stood again with his proud blue form.  
"Sonic" Shadow started, but he didn't have to finish. Sonic nodded and tossed him three Chaos Emeralds.

Shadow walked to the two bodies and looked at them.  
At that point, every one else had gathered around. No one said a word.

None of them could believe it was finally over. It had "been over" so many times over the last month, and now it was.

They had all been through so much, and now it was time to rest.

**Later:**

Shadow stepped away from the tomb he had just finished. Blood Ray and the MK lay slumped on the floor while Black Ray was gracefully extended on a carved rock.  
Shadow observed his work before pushing a rock in place.

He then used his re-obtained Chaos control and carved an image of a blue Chaos Emerald, and sealed the tomb.

Shadow dropped to a knee, and mourned Black Ray. But he still had completed Black Rays first request years ago, he still had one more job: To find this Pink Ray and inform her of both Black Ray's death and the fate of the Black Arms. He had mentioned a computer, but that didn't make any sense. But, if there's something to be figured out with a computer: Miles would be the one to do it.

**Elsewhere:**

Meanwhile, Miles walked slowly up the steps to his mystic ruins workshop. He had flewn here and landed just outside of his hanger when he decided to go see the state of the blue typhoon in the neatby field where it had been crash-landed just a weak before.

As he had feared, the ship was in a terrible state. Panels had been knocked in, the wings were crushed, the interior had been torn apart, most of the electronics had been burned out, the control panels were no longer operational, the engine room was vaporized, the rockets and other various motion components were crushed, and the fuel tanks had been damaged and were leaking over the field.

Both ways, Tails walked, hopping to sort through his thoughts. Unfortunately, there were so many that he didn't know where to start. The past few weeks had been tough on him. He learned that Cosmo's death had effected him a lot worse then he had previously believed. This was obvious in his two mental breakdowns. Granted, one of these was helped by the fact that his brain had been penetrated by a bullet.

And on that note, he wondered how he was still living. All logic dictated that he should be dead, and yet here he was alive and well. He imagined most of that was thanks to the Master Emerald. He wondered if Knuckles might let him maybe one day study it. Probably not.

Tails approached his door and pulled out his key and put it in the slot. Upon twisting it, a small sensor came out of the wood. Hey put his thumb on it, and another sensor emerged to scan his pupil. Once both scans came possitive, a panel came out from beside the door with numbers on it.

Tails began typing "54826826" before he was interrupted.

"Hey Tails" she said.  
Tails dropped his keys and whirled around. He was hopping he wouldn't run into any one who had witnessed his breakdowns for at least a month, maybe two. Which wouldn't have been an issue seeing as he had stacks of work to catch up on.

But here was Amy, standing there in an awkward silence. Maybe he should say something? Why not. "Hey Amy" he replied. "How are you?"  
"I'm fine. I got a place in station square and I'm going to try to find a job"  
"Oh, that's good"

Amy twiddled her thumbs, before taking a large breath. "I'm not here for small talk, I came here to talk to you. See, I'm glad you're alive, but I don't think I'd be comfortable continuing our seccions. That being said, I think maybe you should seek counseling." She said this all very fast, just trying to get through it all.

Tails just stood there for several seconds, trying to soak.  
"I'm not trying to be rude" She said.  
Tails slowly nodded, trying to figure out what she was saying. Did she just fire him and tell him he was nuts?,"Well, alright. What can I say? Um, go to hell" he said with a scowl. "I'm sorry I mean good luck" he finished before walking in his house and slamming the door.

Amy turned away and walked back to the train station in silence.

**Else Where:**

Knuckles sat with a grunt on the steps of the Master Emerald alter on Angel island. After a long adventure, he was ready to be, once again, alone.  
Alone with his thoughts is something he really needed right now. He hadn't quite come to terms with the Master Emerald, but he had at least shoved his feelings aside and continued his life-long duty.

Protecting the Master Emerald. After all, he did owe it plenty for all the services it had done for him in his lifetime. Infact just recently it had saved Tails' life. Maybe he would spend his life serving it, but why should his future children have to serve it for crimes and favors that were not their own? It was indeed a prediciment. But here he was puting the horse infront of the didn't have any kids, let alone a wife. So for now, he wouldn't think about it. He would simply live life like it was now.

Live and wait.

**A Nearby Field:**

Sonic ran at high speeds over the plains of greens. It was nice to just run without worries. He couldn't remember who or when, but he remembered saying that if you have time to worry, then run. And that's what he could do. But as much as he enjoyed these times of relaxation, he loved the life of action and adventure. But he could never put a flag on what he enjoyed the most maybe it was the thrill of danger, or the satisfaction of saving the powerless. Or perhaps it is the people being kidnapped by robots- kidnapped by robots?

Sonic scraped his feet to a halt and saw the two mechanical beings dragging off a couple. What was ol' Eggman up to now? It doesn't matter. He would keep on running.

With that, Sonic the Hedgehog ran headfirst into his next adventure. Be it short or long, it wouldn't be his last. He would never give up the fight; there was no way he would run away. As long as the voice inside him said to keep on going, no one would stop him from going to the very top.

It doesn't matter who is wrong or who is right.

**The End**

**There you have it. I can only hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed wri****t****ing it. Whether or not there will be a sequel I haven't decided, but I wouldn't mind it. ****Though my screen name is Richard Blaine, this is me: Jonah Lummus, thanking you for your faithful reading, be it the five years, or three years, two months or just today: thank you.**


End file.
